Thicker Than Water
by werks
Summary: My take on what the S9:12 BB episode "My Brother's Keeper" **could** have been with a lot of additional Frank angst and a little Jamie whump thrown in even though I did appreciate BB's effort. Spoilers for the episode contained within and more than a few substantial twists interwoven from the original storyline.
1. Chapter 1

**Thicker than Water**

_So, the idea for this story started percolating the minute I first read the upcoming summary for the S9:12 BB episode "My Brother's Keeper" – and who doesn't love a good, angsty Reagan brotherly storyline? It was such an integral part of the show for the first few seasons, but they moved away from it for the most part since then. Glad to see it return, starting with the episode titled the same as this piece. Of course, my muse was sparked and went on a run all on its own before that even aired, so I decided to start writing and co-mingle that with whatever the writers actually produced. Be advised there are some spoilers for the 9:12 episode contained within, some tweaked scenes, as well as a few borrowed from elsewhere. Needless to say, this piece goes off in a completely different direction almost from the start. Special thanks to lawslave for giving me the green light to explore another side of the premise she tackled in "The Family You Know, The Devil You Don't" – one of my all-time FF favorites. If you haven't read that one yet, please do and leave it some love!_

_As always, I own nothing, CBS has all the rights to Blue Bloods, I just take their characters out on a mental spin for fun!_

_Since we are once again on a new episode break, with more to come with March Madness, we'll go with a once-a-week Friday posting schedule for this installment. I'm pretty far ahead but do have a few chapters to finish, so may up the frequency once the writing is complete._

* * *

Chapter 1

_The scene on the street in front of a row of lower-end retail shops was already chaotic even before Detective Daniel Reagan's silver Dodge Charger slid to a halt behind a line of RMP's that were blocking off the area. He quickly exited the vehicle to get a better vantage point while on the hunt for the incident commander. Even though he was well out of his usual territory around the 5-4, whenever a call for a 10-30 robbery in progress with shots fired came across the radio, it was all-hands-on-deck. The fact that this location was smack-dab in the middle of the 2-9 precinct's borders, and therefore likely under the direct purview of another Reagan was not lost on him as he hurried over from behind the car._

_"Any bosses on the scene?" he questioned the first uniform he came across above the wail of numerous sirens and radio chatter before being pointed in the direction of a group of officers standing behind cover near the entrance a small jewelry store by an immediate "Yes, sir, right there."_

_"Who's in charge here?" he demanded twice more before running up to the spot where his younger brother was doling out orders in sergeant's stripes._

_"You lost?" Jamie frowned at the unexpected interruption before refocusing as he continued to set his officers in position._

_"No, I was working a case a couple blocks away. Job came over the air," Danny explained impatiently. "What do we got?" _

_"Smash and grab in the jewelry store," his brother informed as they looked up and caught sight of the suspect nervously crossing inside of the front door where a stricken victim lay still. "Guard stepped up, took a bullet for his trouble."_

_"The call said hostages," Danny impatiently pressed for more._

_"Yeah, three," Jamie confirmed as he glanced over. "Perp says he'll shoot 'em one by one if we don't back off," he continued somewhat dismissively while busily checking the building's floorplan on a tablet and running through a hundred different guidelines and scenarios in his head simultaneously._

_"Well, how's the guard doing?" his older brother continued to interrupt and demand information that was not immediately forthcoming._

_"I don't know," Jamie answered back with some irritation evident now. "But hostage negotiators are on their way. Got to give 'em a chance to talk him out," he reminded matter-of-factly since that was the well-known rule number one in most situations like this after establishing a perimeter._

_"We wait for them, the guard bleeds out, there's a good chance this guy's gonna take out another hostage," Danny insisted and called for immediate action per his norm instead._

_"Right now, we contain the perp and wait for HNT, okay? I've got a team situated around the back, ready to go in on my order. Back them up," Jamie returned with more authority in his voice this time as he pointed to the rear of the store, growing steadily more annoyed with his brother's constant questioning over the current approach, only to have it continue._

_"No, this guy bleeds out, it's on us."_

_"Back them up! Wait for my order!" Jamie reiterated and barked at volume as Danny finally left with a hurried and muffled "okay" over his shoulder while running toward the corner of the building. The younger Reagan barely had five more seconds to contend with the issues at hand before a steely-haired and experienced HNT Lieutenant, Jack Cumbria, arrived at his side, poised to take over the scene himself._

_"Hey, Lieutenant," Jamie greeted him and prepared to immediately follow the chain of command and hand over the reins as he reported on the status._

_"What do we know about the hostage taker?" Cumbria asked as he began to assess the situation. _

_"He's early to mid-20s, behavior's really erratic. Could be drugs on board," the young sergeant relayed and was quick to convey the fact that all exits were covered, front and back before the sound of two shots fired from within the store had everyone ducking for cover._

_"SHOTS FIRED, SHOTS FIRED!"_

_"What's going on in there?" Jamie shouted into his radio just as the front door to the jewelry store banged open and a twenty-something, disheveled young man dressed in grey sweatpants and a loose flannel shirt emerged and began running at full speed across the street with his arms flailing in the air straight in front of him._

_"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Jamie ordered as he instinctively rushed forward to tackle the fleeing suspect at speed, an effort that saw both of them come down hard on the ground together in a sprawling heap with his unprotected lower back and left side slamming up against the corner of the concrete and pipe railing of the next-door stairwell. The impact was hard enough to force all of his breath out of his body in one single whoosh that wouldn't immediately return._

_"Coming out! Coming out! Hold your fire! It's all clear," he heard a familiar voice shout and managed to roll his head to the side just far enough to spot his older brother emerging from the front door with his hands raised._

_"Perp's down," Danny reported as an officer relayed the same over the radio with an added twist. _

_"You mean… two perps down," Jamie corrected with the slightest huffing rasp as the detective and HNT Lieutenant both made their way over to where he was still lying on the ground on top of the second suspect while trying to reacquaint his lungs with the concept of how vital oxygen was to the rest of his body._

_"For your information, he's not a perp… that's a hostage, Harvard," Danny corrected as he helped the other man with a case of mistaken identity get to his feet. "He just panicked and bolted when the shots went off. Great tackle though, way to take yourself out of the action. If the sergeant thing doesn't work out, maybe Jets could use you on the D-line next season… you'd fit right in. C'mon," he snickered a little too gleefully at his youngest sibling's expense and moved the former-perp, now potential victim of police brutality, who thankfully seemed no worse for wear, away and toward the arriving ambulances. "You're lucky he asks questions… LOTS of questions first before shooting, or that stunt might have gone bad. Next time someone yells 'NYPD!' just stay put," he advised the other man as they walked away._

_"That's your brother, right?" Cumbria commiserated as he likewise assisted Jamie to his feet and stood there in support for a moment as his counterpart doubled over and leaned on his knees a bit before finally standing upright. _

_"You sure you're okay? Need the EMTs?"_

_"No, I'm good," Jamie insisted with a huff although that was a mighty stretch of the truth considering how he really felt. Given the fact that the elder Reagan had just managed to disobey a direct order, disrespect his command in front of half the 2-9, and come out of the incident smelling like a rose with a hero's reception that could be heard from this vantage point, there was no way in hell he was going to give Danny the satisfaction of watching while his little brother's ass was hauled away from the scene in a bus too. _

_"How about the stones on him, huh?" Cumbria chuckled in admiration as the two of them made their way back to the command center to clean up while Danny was being regaled by a series of attaboys and back slaps. Jamie did his best to ignore that for the better part of fifteen minutes before his older sibling decided maybe it was time to stop basking and best to try and make some amends between the two of them before he left._

_"Hey. He's gonna make it, the guard," Danny reported as he approached._

_"Yeah," Jamie barely acknowledged his presence as he tried to take a deep breath to keep his mouth in check and steady his emotions, but once again failed miserably. "Lucky he's the only one that came out on a stretcher," he added sarcastically, trying not to favor his sore ribs too noticeably and hoping that railing had not left much of a mark. Eddie was going to have a fit otherwise when he returned home in a piss-poor mood looking like he'd been run over by a truck._

_"Meaning what?" his older brother refused to let it go, and Jamie was quickly growing tired of a head-banging-worthy conversation that felt like it was going nowhere, anyway._

_"You were supposed to wait for my order before going in!" he finally snapped._

_"Well, I know, but, uh, the yahoo turned his back, I had a clear path. What do you want me to do?" _

_"That wasn't the game plan, Danny," Jamie sighed, wondering why he was even wasting his breath on this argument._

_"I know it wasn't the game plan, but it worked."_

_"The shot that perp threw when you went in could've hit one of the hostages!"_

_"No, it couldn't have hit anyone. Look, I had him completely under control. Everything was fine," Danny replied, never one to question his own decisions once they were made and the outcome was favorable. _

_"That's easy to say now."_

_"What do you want me to do? Look, I had a chance to end this thing. For all of us. So, I ended it!"_

_"You could've checked with me before you went in!"_

_"There wasn't time!"_

_"That's protocol!"_

_"Protocol, fine. But I saved lives. We saved lives!" Danny insisted, touting his success as a means to justify the end._

_"You could've cost someone their life!" Jamie bit back._

_"Yeah, and you, while waiting to play Dog Day Afternoon with that clown, could've let the guard bleed out and cost him his life! Coulda, shoulda, woulda…" Danny mocked as their dispute finally descended into a personal attack on his brother's style of policing as he sensed the end to any civil discussion was near._

_"I was the incident commander! It was my call, not yours!"_

_"You're welcome." Danny finally snarked in that same annoying "I'm right, you're wrong," holier-than-thou voice that had haunted his childhood as Jamie walked away, incensed enough to write up a Command Discipline report filed the moment he returned to the precinct. That action, of course, had only instigated another confrontation between the two at the 2-9 this time with another tense round of accusations about going rogue and ignoring procedure being bantered back and forth at volume._

_It was the yin and yang of their relationship, the conflict between the free spirit and the by-the-book guy in a nutshell, and the essence of everything that had brought them to the place they were in right now…_

"Hey, ten-minute warning on dinner," Eddie announced as she rounded the corner with some place settings only to find Jamie lost in thought on the couch in the sunroom, no doubt reliving the previous day's incident while hiding out in a familiar corner of the Reagan house seeking solitude to lick his wounds and sulk alone.

"Thanks," he replied while gingerly sitting up and rubbing his aching arm, the pain behind his left shoulder blade and ribs increasing in intensity since he woke up this morning. That sensation had started off as a mild twinge but was seemingly sharpening with every inhaled breath now in spite of the near fistful of aspirin he had downed earlier from Henry's kitchen stash when the older man had observed his discomfort and offered some in relief.

"Are you okay?" she pressed with a frown, reading his mood and noticing the physical and mental distress he was suffering, with more to arrive shortly. Eddie might be new to these Reagan family dinners, but even she could see the massive category 5 storm on the horizon and was doing her best in a concerted effort with Erin to diffuse it before either of the brothers did something regrettable to further the trouble. "Danny's gonna be here soon."

"Uh-huh."

"Maybe you guys should talk before we sit down to dinner."

"She said, _hopefully," _he noted with dripping emphasis and a half-glance in her direction, well-aware of what she was trying to do and appreciative of the effort even if it was all for naught.

"Jamie, you guys love and respect each other," she continued, anyway, not willing to concede without a fight even with the distinct feeling of being on a sinking ship. "Don't you think it's time you make up?"

"It's not like he stole my baseball glove, Eddie," he replied evenly, shaking his head. "He screwed up at a crime scene, _my _crime scene."

"Yeah, he followed his gut. That's what makes him a great cop."

"You're taking his side?" he frowned back, although this notion was nothing new as the two had many discussions over recent months and often held opposite opinions regarding his exacting style of command which usually emphasized order and protocol over off the cuff actions.

"Of course not," Eddie insisted, although in this particular instance she was, in fact, leaning more toward Danny's point of view as something of a shared fault, often finding herself in trouble for the very same thing. It was a trait that had already garnered a RIP or two from her prospective husband and current CO as a result. "He's your brother," she added, anyway, feeling the need to emphasize that, even though Jamie was an equal opportunity disciplinarian when it came to the job as illustrated by his next statement.

"Exactly. I let him disobey a direct order because we've got the same last name? What kind of credibility will I have with the next guy?" Jamie wondered out loud and then cut himself short as the pain flared up after shaking his head, and he became increasingly lightheaded when an initial failed attempt to stand went wonky again.

"God, Reagans are nothing but pure stubborn!" Eddie griped after rushing over to steady him. "You and Danny are two sides of the exact same coin… it must be in the genes. And you know you look awful, right? Your side is all black and blue and you can hardly lift your arm. We should have stayed home."

"I'm fine," he insisted after catching his balance with her help. "I told you, I'm just a little sore from taking the second guy down… must have banged my shoulder on the ground. I promise to try and behave, alright? C'mon, let's just get this over with," he sighed and followed her toward the dining room arm-in-arm as they heard the front door open and knew there was no point in trying to put this off any longer even as Erin strategically moved into position to try and intercept her older brother.

* * *

_So, we're headed for that fiery Sunday Dinner Showdown now, but that's when things start to take a real turn in this story as our favorite brothers, the rest of the family, and in particular their father, are about to discover there might be a great deal more behind their differences than anyone could imagine._


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks so much for all of the reviews, favs and follows on the first chapter! Really appreciate those! Here's a nice, long one to get us closer to the heart of the story. Looks like a good new BB episode for tonight too!_

* * *

Chapter 2

"Running late?" Erin edged as she strategically managed to cut her older brother off at the pass as soon as Danny arrived at the Reagan family home for dinner.

"Had a few things to take care of," he growled an excuse while taking off his coat and throwing it down with a current bad attitude on full display.

"Wouldn't be that you're trying to avoid Jamie, would it?"

"So, I guess you heard," he frowned.

"Bad news travels fast around here," she acknowledged considering the family tensions that had been running rampant through these Sunday gatherings of late, including her own continued conflicts with their father over the DA's policies since her bureau chief appointment. Things had gotten to the point of avoidance between the two, especially when it came to work, and she couldn't stand to see it extend to her brothers as well. Given that, today she decided to step in with Eddie's help to try and tamp this brushfire down somewhat before it exploded.

"Well, it is what it is," Danny sighed in a tone that didn't sound promising in the least bit, not that it was much of a surprise.

"What are you gonna do about it?" she pressed, anyway.

"I mean, tomorrow I'm gonna request a hearing set in the trial room."

"You're really gonna let it go that far?"

_"I'm _really gonna let it go that far? I didn't do anything, okay? I'm the victim here! I did my job, and he came after me for nothing!"

"If this is gonna get settled, someone has to make the first move!" Erin insisted, knowing that even though her two brothers were opposite in many ways, both shared that Reagan pig-headed gene in varying degrees. If she could just get Danny to stand down the smallest bit, then a normally more level-headed Jamie might follow in line, especially with Eddie's persistence, and a major blow-out could be averted.

"So why do I have to be the one to make the first move?"

"Because you're older!" she continued with what she knew was a clichéd, weak argument, but decided to go with it, anyway, since there were very few cards left in the pack to play.

"I'm older, and he outranks me," he countered, and subconsciously let slip one of the true grinding bits behind this encounter. "Okay, look, I get what you're trying to do, and I appreciate it, but don't do it," came the clear warning as he pushed past her and directly into the firestorm they were trying to prevent.

"Will you pass the meat?" Danny taunted after they said grace as Jamie continued to ignore him, having vowed not so much as to make eye contact with his older brother since sitting down. In all honesty, he was still trying to hide the fact that he had been injured in the incident and frankly incapable of lifting that heavy plate with his left arm the way it was throbbing at the moment, anyway. "Hello?"

"Here you go," Eddie passed the platter and received a flippant "Thank you," instead.

"Maybe you could teach your fiancé some manners," Danny continued to goad, and Erin's hope for him to take the high road in any way, shape, or form was dashed.

"The word 'manners' is kind of like 'rules'… it's not exactly your strong suit," Jamie finally took the bait and interjected even as Eddie gave him a disappointed look.

"How is Officer Green holding up?" Henry tried on his own to deflect the conversation to something else as he addressed other issues regarding an officer who had accidentally shot an eleven-year-old girl during a confrontation with armed suspects.

"Media's doing a real job on him," Frank admitted with a frown.

"Why is it always the cop's fault?" Eddie wondered, hoping that comment might spark some family unity given all of their shared occupations.

"Certain papers playing to their base," her future father-in-law admitted before the dialogue turned back to the brotherly conflict as Jamie refused to let it go once again.

"Although sometimes, a cop goes too far, and needs to be held accountable," he insinuated plainly.

"Not in his case," Frank emphasized in one last attempt to rein them in. "The findings were quick and conclusive."

"And when a guy does nothing wrong and takes a bad guy off the street, that should be reported, too," Danny deliberately added.

"Two sides to every story," Erin noted and then watched in dismay as the rest of the dinner went to hell in a handbasket before her brothers squared off after a few more terse exchanges.

"Jamie, cool it!" Eddie ordered at one point, only to turn to Danny and tell him to do the same in a no-uncertain-terms manner that was hauntingly familiar of another blonde woman who used to sit at this table and referee exchanges like this with his youngest brother. The realization shocked him into silence for just a second before he managed to push it away.

"Why don't you settle this, Grandpa?" Sean begged, looking for an out.

"I can't," Frank replied.

"Can't or won't?" Nicky challenged, hating the sight of her two uncles going at it like this.

"My sons are having a disagreement, so they need to figure it out like grown men," he insisted as the quarrel only progressed.

"We don't turn on each other in this family!" Danny continued while waving a butter knife in Jamie's direction.

"How's that for a reason? That rule doesn't apply to you out on the street!"

"Guys, that's enough!" Erin pleaded in one last-ditch attempt to avoid the inevitable.

"You better stop hiding behind those stripes you're wearing!" her older sibling shouted.

"I'm not wearing 'em right now, Danny!" Jamie refused to concede and plainly accepted the challenge in spite of the fact in his current condition he would have gotten his ass kicked in mere seconds against his street-toughened brother.

"Great! Let's go outside and settle this like we used to!" Danny barked as the pair stood up against each other, across the table and on polar opposite sides of a conflict between them once more.

"If you can't abide by the rules of this table, GET OUT!" Frank ordered in a tone he reserved for very few occasions but was clearly warranted in this case.

Everyone at the table watched in stunned silence as Danny paused, then turned and marched out through the sunroom. Jamie, despite his anger, still had his mother's manners ingrained and took the time to lean down, pick his napkin off the floor and shove the chair in—the standing motion sending the room spinning again for a split second—before pausing to grab his plate and head to the kitchen.

"Well, that couldn't have gone worse," Erin lamented as she likewise gave up on eating and pushed her food away. It was mere seconds later, however, when that sentiment would be proven false as the sound of shattering dishware on the floor caught all of their attention and had Eddie jumping up to her feet immediately.

"WHAT IN THE HELL?" Henry cursed with the initial thought that one or both of his hot-headed grandsons had purposefully taken out some of their anger on one of Grandma Betty's favorite Sunday dinner plates. "Don't tell me they got into it, anyway! You should have warned me to use paper today!" he grumbled at the rest of them for not having the foresight to advise him of that possibility.

"Jamie would never do that!" Eddie insisted as she rushed past him and into the kitchen only to find her beloved alone and kneeling down while trying to pick up the pieces and clean the food off the floor with one hand.

"It just slipped," he insisted, confused as to why that happened, his useless left arm now hugged up against those sore ribs with all the anger he had displayed just seconds ago gone and replaced with sorrow for having broken an important family heirloom. "I'm sorry, Pop, I didn't mean to!" he honestly apologized as he looked up like a little boy caught in the act before taking some deep breaths as the room filled with Reagans, all save one, who were frankly more concerned now to see this sudden turn in his demeanor.

"It's alright," Eddie insisted as she pressed him back to sit on the floor up against the cabinets for support while gathering up the shards of the plate and moving them away to a safer distance. "Hey, Jamie, it was an accident, okay? He hurt his shoulder somehow when he tackled that runner yesterday," she explained to everyone else but Henry who had noticed it earlier and offered his grandson some aspirin for relief. "He didn't want Danny to know because he was already making fun of him since it turned out to be one of the hostages instead of a second perp, but it's been getting worse all day, hasn't it?" she frowned and looked back down for an honest answer this time.

"A little," Jamie admitted begrudgingly, still unwilling to go all in and admit he needed help.

"A lot," she corrected given that pale look on his face that belayed the pain he was in. "C'mon, she ordered while helping him to his feet. "That's enough. You're going to go have it checked out right now," she insisted.

"Ed," he sighed even though he knew she was right. "It's a Sunday night, the walk-in centers are closed, and ER's are going to be packed. I can move it, so it's not broken or anything. I'll go tomorrow if it still hurts," he bargained. "We'll probably still be sitting there until then, anyway."

"NOW!" she repeated with no room for negotiation evident. "I'll get your coat."

"I'll get it," Nicky offered instead as the broken dish and the fight that precipitated it was forgotten in an instant with one of their own injured and in need of help. "Do you want one of us to drive?"

"Maybe you should call the Batmobile and take him in, Francis," Henry suggested, likewise unconcerned now about that broken plate, and knowing from experience that the arrival of the PC would undoubtedly grease the wheels and have his son seen more quickly.

"I think that's a good idea, Dad," Erin agreed, half-hoping that some alone time with their father would be enough to put Jamie back on the right track to family peace as one of their tête-à-têtes usually did.

"I'm _fine," _her younger brother insisted instead as he recognized her plan and glanced over with just a bit of that defiance showing again as he looked up at his dad to make the point. "Chain of command, right?" he challenged. "I don't want any special treatment."

"Okay then," Frank conceded with a sigh against his better judgment and allowed his son to make that decision even if he'd rather suffer for making a point. "I'd go to Kings County over St. Vincent's," he offered as a suggestion a few minutes later, anyway, as Eddie was helping walk Jamie out to the car with an arm carefully wrapped around him for support. "Good staff, better than average weekend wait times," he explained through the window after they had settled in the front seats even though he had every intention to make a phone call to see if he could bump them up the list behind the scenes given his connections at most of the major metropolitan hospitals. He was still a father after all and seeing one of his offspring in pain was disconcerting no matter what age they were.

"Hey, I'm the Police Commissioner; I know everything," he added with a smile when she gave him a dubious look.

"Thanks, Frank, we'll head over there then," Eddie acknowledged from behind the wheel with a deep breath and a half frown as she nodded up toward the house where an older brother could be seen watching the procession from behind a window without offering help.

"Everything will be fine," Frank assured before they pulled away as he read her intent and glanced back to see Danny drop the curtain and walk away after being spotted.

Unfortunately, in this instance, the Commissioner could not be more wrong about either of those notions, as he was about to discover a shocking and heartbreaking reality the entire family had been unaware of for years.

###

"We've been here forever," Eddie complained as she preached to the choir while they sat in a pair of hard chairs along a wall in the center of the crowded Kings County Hospital ER. Jamie rolled his overly tired eyes upward behind their closed lids and wisely refrained from the "I told you so," that was burning on the tip of his tongue. To be honest, after waiting there for so long all he really wanted was to just go home and lay down somewhere flat after popping more over-the-counter pain meds but given the way everything else had worked out in the past few days, the last thing he needed to do was start a fight with her over that too.

"Why don't we use this time for something more productive," he suggested instead, continuing to lean back uncomfortably with his head pressed against the wall, secretly regretting that decision to stand up to his father and refuse any hooks now. He listened while minor cases of splinters and "all-over-achy" feelings that had been there longer took precedence over the complaint of a bruised shoulder as had been noted on his chart during intake.

"Like what?" Eddie shot back irritably as she had likewise held her tongue for the last few hours in an effort to let him cool down, but there was only so much patience left in her Serbian blood, and he had not brought it up yet. "Like planning the honeymoon, or figuring out a way to solve this thing with Danny? Because we're not doing anything else until _that's _settled," she asserted. "You know Erin told me he's going to put in a request to go to the trial room. Do you really want it to go that far?"

"I did pretty well the last time we were in there," he reminded her of the charge they successfully fought just the year before after initiating a high-speed chase and subsequent crash in the pursuit of a potentially car-jacked baby. "But I'd rather talk about seeing you naked in one of those huts next to the water in Bora Bora," he fluffed with the first faint smile of the day crossing his lips.

"Yeah, no dice until we fix this, mister, and your Dad decided to uphold our suspension, anyway," Eddie reminded as she pointedly ignored the second part and focused on her mission to reunite the brothers which was her goal at this time, and she refused to be distracted from it. "He has the final say. Do you think he'd go against one of his sons that way? Do you really want to make him choose between the two of you?"

"Maybe I do," Jamie acknowledged something that had been bothering him deep down for years. "Ed, every time I've stepped out of line, I've gotten dinged for it, even sometimes when I didn't deserve to like when that new Lieutenant at the 12th was feeling his brass and gave me a RIP for riding in the bus with a scared kid. I'll admit I'm no angel, and there have been plenty of times I mouthed back or went off the reservation and deserved a write-up, but Dad's always made a big show about needing to trust the system the department has in place, that chain of command was sacred, but for Danny…" he trailed off. "That's never been the case for him. He can do just about anything he wants."

"That's not true," Eddie insisted. "If there's anything that I've learned about your father, he tries super hard to be fair to everyone," she noted. "Even for me as a rookie when I screwed up that arrest report with the cell phone. He could have just fired me without cause, but he didn't."

"And when I was a rookie, on the very day of my graduation from the Academy, in fact," Jamie remembered. "Danny got caught throwing a case because he shoved a perp's head in the toilet to find a kidnapped girl before she died of insulin shock."

"Did he? Save the girl, I mean," she asked, derailing his point completely and wondering if the result had justified the means again since the parallels between that and the hostage situation from the day before seemed starkly evident.

"Yeah, but he tanked the case! He doesn't care about that part of it!" Jamie defended. "He let a child molester walk to go do it again! That time it was Erin out for his blood because she had to drop the charges, but it didn't matter. Danny and his partner pinned another case from Florida on the guy, and he was extradited to stand trial down there where he's doing life. It always seems to work out that way for him."

"Well, I think probably the little girl and her parents were the real winners in that," Eddie pointed out. "She lived, and the perv was caught in the end… win-win."

"God, you sound just like _him _sometimes!" Jamie huffed with a frown and for a half second wondered if that was what had attracted him to her in the first place—that Reagan family penchant of needing a worthy adversary to go up against, even if it was at the dinner table, or in this case, the bedroom too. "And Danny ended up with an appointment to Major Cases… basically a promotion," he continued with frustration evident. "Even though Dad _'said' _he wanted him demoted to the motor pool," he emphasized with air quotes, disturbing her on several fronts given the fact he was barely able to raise his left hand off his lap to make the required motion by that time.

"And you sound jealous," she noted aptly even though her concern over his deteriorating condition was increasing exponentially, and she was about to go up to the desk and demand that he be seen immediately.

"Maybe I am," Jamie finally admitted truthfully. He was, in fact, envious of that Midas touch his older brother seemed to hold, although given the tragedy that had happened to Linda, that was limited to work and not so much in his personal life. "And maybe sometimes I'm worried about what happens when it doesn't work out for him," he added, knowing that Danny was dealing with the ramifications of pissing off the wrong people in the Mano Sangriento cartel who subsequently burned down his house, but unaware that had also purportedly resulted in the death of his beloved wife.

"Jamie, you can't control that. He is who he is, and you've already lost one brother to the job," Eddie softened since it felt like, perhaps, they had managed to pare down a little way to the core problem. "Don't lose another one this way. The two of you just have to work some things out now that you outrank him; it's an adjustment for everyone, right? _Something you have to get used to… _at least that's what you told me, I don't know how many times" she added with an exaggerated eye roll, deftly using his own words against him. "I realize you and Danny are different, but from what I've heard Joe was more in the middle. If he were here today, what would he tell you?"

"That Danny is Danny, and he understands where I'm coming from because Detective Reagan was a hard-ass to him too," Jamie recalled similar conversations held between the two while he was at Harvard and Joe was the rookie under his tough-as-nails older brother. "And for all those times when we were young, and he called me out for being a Boy Scout and following all the rules… he kinda had it coming," he added as one last stitch of defense to what he had to admit now was maybe too much of an emotional reaction—something that Joe, the peacemaker, would have eventually dragged out of him also.

"But…" Eddie prompted, relieved that they had seemingly worked through some of that together and dying to report the same to Erin in a show of soon-to-be sisterly solidarity.

"But we're brothers, and family comes first," he finished with a telling sigh and received a hug and kiss for his troubles since she knew how hard it was for him to cross that line. "Okay, Edit," he conceded. "I got it. Maybe you're the real hard-ass. I'll rescind the complaint tomorrow, but after that, it's up to him."

"Good enough," she sighed in relief to get that far just as his name was finally called to go in the back to be examined. "Now let's get the other part of this whole mess fixed too," she added anxiously even though the conflict between the brothers was far from over as Danny was lacking a similar, soft voice of reason in his ear ever since that helicopter crash in the Hudson had taken it away.

* * *

_Well, Jamie seems to have come to his senses after a little prodding, even if it wasn't from Henry in this story, but will it last? Will Danny get the opportunity to do the same, or will he lose the chance to make up with his brother in a way no one ever imagined possible?_


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks once again for the reviews, favs and follows! You guys are great! Glad to see this is being well received. A/N at the bottom to answer some of the guest questions._

* * *

Chapter 3

"Eddie? There she is! Right over there. How is he? Did you hear anything yet?"

The sound of a father's concerned voice cut through her likewise worried state as she sat staring mindlessly past the pages of yet another outdated magazine, stuck back by herself in the busy waiting room still filled to the brim with the usual slate of wintertime illnesses, flu, and minor injury cases. A serious multi-vehicle accident near Prospect Park had only served to further back things up earlier, and the less critical patients like her own fiancé were just now beginning to move through the system again. A quick glance over revealed the Police Commissioner was not alone as, despite Jamie's request, the entire available Reagan clan of Erin, Nicky, Sean, Henry, and even a reluctant-looking older brother had abandoned Sunday dinner and were trailing along close behind.

"Oh, Frank… you're all here. Um, no, we still don't really know what's going on," she answered in a staggered fashion trying to cover her surprise at seeing Danny before adding a defense for not calling the family earlier to offer an update after noticing more than three hours had gone by since the pair had left the house. "Jamie was right; we had to wait pretty long before a spot opened up, and we were talking about… wedding stuff," she fudged without getting back into any of the turmoil again. "Sorry, I guess I lost track of time."

"We were just worried, sweetheart," Henry offered to mediate as he took a seat. "Staying at home waiting wasn't an option anymore. There's no news?"

"No, not yet; it's been super busy here though. The minor cases got put on the back burner. They just took him down for a CT a few minutes ago. Once he got in, the doctor… Patricelli, I think… she seemed a little concerned that his blood pressure was low and wanted to rule out anything serious especially since his ribs are so bruised from where he hit the railing after tackling that _perp," _she added with a little deliberate dripping emphasis for Danny's benefit, although instantly regretted that action after she saw his face fall. "But it's probably nothing," she shrugged, having been kept in the dark for the most part about what had been discussed while Jamie was being examined. "His shoulder was bothering him more than anything else, and he was a little dizzy and nauseous by the time they took him back. I think maybe that's just because his stomach was upset since he took those aspirins on an empty stomach before dinner and then didn't eat anything after."

"Patricelli? Not Elaine Patricelli?" Frank pressed as he processed that information since he was familiar with the staff at many of the borough hospitals, but that unusual name, in particular, rang a bell.

"Yeah, I think so," Eddie revealed as she sought to discover if that was a good thing or bad since the experienced doctor had seemed competent and caring to her, at least at first. "Dark hair, in her fifties… about five-four. Said she was the Chief of Emergency Medicine here now, but this is her first day. I thought that was weird because it's a Sunday, and maybe she came in and took him herself because you called. I guess not though," she renewed her worry. "Do you know her?"

"For many years," Frank nodded with a reassuring smile as he thought back to an ironic twist in this story, especially since an earlier inquiry had revealed his previous contact in that position here had retired suddenly to Boca and was out of touch. "As many as Jamie's been with us in fact," he continued. "She used to work at St. Vincent's."

"Patricelli?" Henry coughed as he recalled the link. "Wasn't that the name of the runty little intern with the big coke-bottle glasses that…"

"Delivered Jamie in the elevator on the very first day of her ER rotation; talk about a trial by fire," Frank finished with a chuckle before explaining. "I guess by the fourth baby Mary's body knew what it was doing and went on autopilot. She only felt a few mild contractions before her water broke at home and we went to check in, but they took one look at her at reception and sent us straight up to Labor and Delivery with an escort… the problem was we never got there. That intern was so nervous; she had no idea where we should be going. The maternity wing had just been temporarily moved because there was a flood. There was construction going on and something set the sprinkler system off, so the whole place was like a maze of buckets and plastic. She ended up taking us on a tour of half the hospital. By the time we hit the right spot on the fourth floor, Mary was pushing, Elaine was playing catch, and I was ready to hand out cigars."

"But, she's good, right?" Eddie continued to fret as, despite all assurances, this was all still unnerving, especially the part about sitting here with the entire Reagan family on hand after an especially combative Sunday dinner while Jamie was alone and sick elsewhere.

"Yes, from what I know, she's excellent. She's the Chief now, right? That's a big move up the ladder for anyone and a feather in her cap. Kings is a Level I Trauma Center, the top shelf in Brooklyn."

"Is that why you told them to come here instead?" Erin chimed in, looking around the crowded room, while also growing concerned about her little brother and nervous that the Commissioner might be recognized here without his detail as things dragged on. "I thought you said not to worry!" she hissed.

"No," her father replied even though everyone could clearly read through his denial since the first excuse had been better wait times. "It's closer to Jamie's apartment in Brooklyn Heights is all… a quicker ride home," he defended before looking up and spotting the aforementioned doctor heading their way. "And speak of the devil, here she comes."

"Commissioner," Dr. Patricelli greeted Frank first with a confident handshake as the entire Reagan family stood while he reached around to pull Eddie to her place front and center as Jamie's fiancée. "Imagine my surprise at meeting your son again this way on my first day here," the now much older woman kidded given the history which she also remembered well. "I assure you I did not get lost with Jameson on the way to CT or back this time."

"Elaine, so good to see you again despite the circumstances, and congratulations on your appointment," Frank returned, relieved that she did not seem overly stressed at first which seemed to bode well for a good diagnosis. That bubble was burst rather quickly though as the mood soon turned more serious with the next question. "So, how is he?"

"Why don't we step over into the conference area for a moment," the doctor directed instead, hoping for a moment of privacy amid the chaos, although the small room was soon filled with more people than she had anticipated as all of the Reagans and Eddie crowded in before the door closed. "I'm afraid Jamie is going to need to be our guest here for a few days," she revealed to a stunned audience before her explanation was interrupted by an ever-impatient brother.

"Why? What's going on, doc?" Danny demanded. Quite frankly at this point, his anger had yet to be fully diminished, and he was ready to spit nails not knowing if he should feel worried, guiltier for his actions the day before or more pissed that his brother was the cause of all this added family angst after the dramatic dinner scene. "I thought Eddie said it was just his shoulder bugging him. Can't you give him a couple of pills and an ice pack or something and send him on his way?"

"Unfortunately, no," she countered with authority and no hesitation. "In fact, despite the symptoms, there's nothing actually wrong with his shoulder at all. But the attempt to treat it with aspirin earlier today has landed us in a bit of a predicament as it were."

"So, what? It's all in his head?" Danny growled, still stuck on the bitter conflict yesterday's hostage call had caused. "Figures," he added contemptuously under his breath.

"Daniel, let her explain," Frank broke in with an order of his own, growing equally irritated with his oldest son's continued insolence. "I'm sure that's not what she means at all. Elaine?"

"Jamie is experiencing what is called referred pain," the doctor continued. "Sometimes the sensation from an injury in one part of the body can be redirected to another along the neural pathways. In this case from a small rupture to the spleen which is a fist-sized, blood-filled organ located underneath the lower ribs on the left side where your son took some blunt force trauma yesterday. Normally that causes nausea and intense pain in the abdomen as blood pools there, but in his case that was masked."

"Wait, so he's been bleeding inside all this time?!" Eddie gasped as she too tried to come up to speed with what was being reported, especially given the fact Jamie had waited more than a day before being seen. "That's serious, right? Is he going to be okay? Does it mean he needs surgery?"

"Not necessarily," Dr. Patricelli reassured. "Treatment of this condition depends on the severity of the injury. Jamie has an approximate two- to three-centimeter tear which is a Grade II laceration out of a possible five. It caused a hematoma to form which is pressing on some nerves and causing the shoulder pain. A few years ago, he would already be in the OR with findings like this, but we've since discovered the spleen plays a large role in the body's immune system, so the gold standard is to treat it non-operatively in instances like this where the patient is stable. In the most extreme cases, in which a large amount of blood has been lost, and the patient is critically ill, emergency surgery to remove it is necessary. If the injury is not severe, then less invasive measures can be taken. This approach involves admitting the patient to the hospital under close observation for three to five days so vital signs and blood counts can be constantly monitored. Most of these cases will resolve without surgical intervention. Given his age, overall health and other factors, I feel he is a good candidate for this approach."

"Oh, okay, I guess," Eddie finally breathed out in some relief since that didn't sound as bad as she initially thought before remembering there had been a caveat at the start. "But you said something about the aspirin he took?" she asked nervously.

"Aspirin thins the blood," Patricelli explained with a small frown. "It may have worsened his condition already and could cause him to bleed again actively. If that happens, surgery becomes more likely."

"Damn it," Henry sighed in expressed guilt over his actions. "I gave it to him… it's my fault," he added and looked around. "I take some every day for my heart… it was right there on the kitchen counter when he mentioned his arm was hurting. It said low-dose, so I guess he took more of them than he should have."

"Pop, you didn't know. How could you? None of us did," Frank tried to assure as he knew his father would never forgive himself, not unlike his oldest son, should something happen to Jamie because of that. "Is there anything we can do that _will _help?"

"Well, in any event given his current counts, I would recommend he receive at least one unit of blood in a transfusion, and it is possible he will need several more over the next few days."

"Is that a problem?" Erin asked as she nervously remembered a time when her mother needed the same due to complications of her cancer treatment. "You brought it up," she pointed out with a classic prosecutor's attention to detail. "Otherwise you would have just given it to him."

"Our blood bank is very low at this time," Patricelli clarified. "Volunteer donations tend to drop significantly during the winter due to illnesses and the weather, and we've had several patients sent to the OR today with severe trauma injuries from an earlier MVA. Jamie's type is AB negative, which is rare, occurring in less than one percent of the population, but luckily, he is an almost universal recipient in that he can take negative A, B, AB or O blood products. In non-emergent cases like this, we like to ask the family for directed donations which of course would be used for others in the event he does not require them. To be a donor, you must be in good general health, weigh at least 110 pounds and be 16 or older," she added with a hopeful glance around the full room where nearly everyone except for Henry met or exceeded the requirements.

"Patients often have greater peace of mind when they know where their blood products come from," she urged.

"Enough said," Frank declared as he volunteered the entire family, minus his father, without a second thought. "I'm O negative, so I know I can donate to him or anyone else, but I think I can speak for everyone when I say you've got six willing volunteers right here, and one call to the local precinct will have a line halfway down the street to ease your crisis."

"I'm A positive," Eddie corrected with a frown, disappointed that she was excluded. "But I'll still give if it will help someone else."

"I hate needles," Sean commented, and then quickly backtracked when he caught the looks of family disapproval. "But I'll do it for Uncle Jamie."

"Me too," Nicky piped in.

"Yeah, count me in. I guess I owe him for this. Take all you want… if he'll have it," Danny muttered with the last part under his breath, knowing that their personal spat hadn't been settled yet but willing to wave the white flag until they were both back on level ground. "Maybe you're better off not telling him where it's coming from just to be safe."

"I'll give, of course," Erin agreed, although needing clarification on one point from the doctor while never in a million years imagining the Pandora's box of family grief her statement was about to unleash for her father and youngest brother in particular. "But it's really okay if the type doesn't match exactly? I know Danny and I are both B negative because we got tested along with Joe when Mom needed blood that one time during her chemotherapy, but she was AB. I thought her doctor said O or the same type was better though. Jamie was away at school then, remember, Dad?"

"I do," Frank agreed. "Mary was anemic, and they said it would help, but no one else available was an exact match, and they used mine instead. Then, if I recall correctly, Jamie's the only one out of the four kids who's the same type as her. I think Joe was A so we spread the odds pretty evenly there. I can never keep any of those genetics things straight in my head though."

"Me either," Erin admitted. "I guess I inherited that from you," she kidded ironically. "Bio 101 was why I dropped botany and became a lawyer instead."

"Your mother was AB negative also?" Dr. Patricelli puzzled as a shadow crossed her expression for less than half a second before she managed to conceal that reaction with a practiced game face—so quickly in fact that not one of the usually eagle-eyed Reagans spotted the break. Experienced in matters like this, she instead decided to verify that information with another source before moving on since frequently patient's families remembered details like that incorrectly. "It can be confusing. An O negative like the Commissioner is a universal donor, but they do require their own blood type when receiving," she explained while trying to brush off Erin's concerns. "Doesn't seem quite fair, does it? Your mother's oncologist was wrong, however, or perhaps you misunderstood. AB negatives can receive any likewise negative type without harm though. I promise you that Jamie will be fine," she reiterated. "We've already screened him as a precaution to be sure."

"Then roll up your sleeves, and let's get to it," Frank ordered as he and the others did the same. "I want to make sure my son is taken care of."

* * *

_Well, hmm, if you paid attention in Biology class, then maybe you've already caught on to where this is going, but if you're more like, say Frank, and the rest of the Reagan family, you're about to be in for some unexpected news._

_A/N: Sorry for the delay in answering some of the reviews but the house remodel has moved inside and listening to the contactors literally rip the kitchen, floors, fireplace, and powder room apart around my little oasis of an office has not been conducive to work, so that's getting done at night instead. Soon that will be gone too to make way for the hardwood and the four of us will be living out of boxes and paper plates in the basement. Should be fun with hubs, two teenagers and three dogs, right? Who thought this was a good idea? Anywho, for the Danny fans out there, he will purposefully come off as a bit of an ass in the beginning of this one before his dark talents are required and his softer side will start to show, and in the meantime, Eddie's voice will continue to try and balance the two POVs. Don't worry, we all know it's in there, but a little way down the line. Have to keep the brotherly feud going for a bit longer so hope you can bear with it. As for the chapters, nearly done writing... looking like ~17 at this point with lots of family emotional whump coming up as you can tell from the end of this one. _

_That's it! You've all been so great I'll plan on a bonus Tuesday chapter next week if at all possible!_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hey, lambchop," Eddie's soft voice at the bedside instantly roused Jamie from a resting state as all of this stress on his body was exacting a toll and he blinked back tiredly. "So… I guess this is home for a few days," she offered with a raised eyebrow and a glance around the nicely appointed, oversized private patient's room in a secure wing on the sixth floor where the Police Commissioner's son had been deposited against his will, but for his own good.

"Could be worse."

"I know, I'm really sorry, Ed," he instantly apologized for the worry he knew this was causing her. "I had no idea it was going to turn into all this," he admitted with a shrug to show off the various tubes and wires now connected over his body before trying to convince her it was some kind of mistake. "We can go. I think they've got it wrong, anyway, because I don't feel that bad, anymore… I swear!"

"Well, those are the pain meds talking, and you're not going anywhere, buster, so just come to grips with _that," _Erin chided as she likewise entered the room, also relieved at first to find him in good spirits and not looking too unwell after all they'd heard. "Pop's pulling up a chair outside your door with the new crossword book he bought in the gift shop, and it's a master's edition so get comfy. Next time let someone else jump on top of the bad guy."

"Wouldn't have to if Danny would just listen for once and wait for the ESU and HNT units," Jamie grumbled, unhappy with this forced detention and no longer in the mood to completely forgive his brother's infraction. He adjusted his position in the bed with a slight grimace after noticing that both women were sporting identical taped gauze patches on their forearms. "What's with that?" he demanded with suspicion. "Some kind of initiation?"

"No. Seems like someone in here might need a refill or two, so Dad ordered everyone but Pop to get tapped," Danny reported as he dared to enter the room behind them while rolling down his sleeve to cover the evidence of his own procedure. "You're welcome," he preemptively sniped again in the same irritating fashion for the second time in two days.

"GO TO HELL!" Jamie returned with an angry glare and such venom in his voice that it made Eddie jump. Clearly, there would be no truce now despite the circumstances and what she thought was a successful earlier intervention. "You acted like you were ashamed to be my brother before this, anyway, so why would you want to help?"

"Then don't use the damn stuff! Give it to someone else and take your chances on your own!"

"Jameson and Daniel Reagan! THAT'S ENOUGH! C'mon, get out!" Erin huffed in a rebuke reminiscent of their mother's voice as she sought to intercede before anything else regrettable happened while pushing her older brother back out into the hall. "Are you crazy? What are you trying to do?!" she hissed. "Send his blood pressure up so high he ends up in surgery or worse? Is that what you want?"

"Hey, I _was _being nice! I'm here, right? I gave blood. He started it again, and I thought the doc said it should go up, anyway!" he frowned in contempt. "Wasn't that the point of us getting stuck with those big needles so she could pump it into him? Maybe he'll use less this way, so it goes to people that really need it."

"SERIOUSLY? You're _both _impossible!" his sister griped and made it clear that he was unwelcome anywhere near their youngest sibling with a pointed finger repeatedly pounding on his chest while she shoved him backward further down the hall. "Now stay away before I file a PFA against one of you!" she continued with what did not seem like an empty threat as they approached the waiting area where Henry was sitting and waiting while the rest of the family finished up with their donations.

"Keep him out of there, Pop! They're still not playing nice together!" she added before turning heel and marching back down to Jamie's room for a few choice words with him as well.

"Daniel, this is not the time or place," Henry likewise warned as he continued to worry over his younger grandson and regret his part in Jamie's current situation.

"When is it _ever _the right time with him?" Danny muttered as he gave up and dropped down on the couch to wait with his arms crossed. "You do know he wrote me up for doing the right thing? My own brother," he growled, apparently not ready to concede anything in this battle between them yet either.

"You did the right thing, but you stepped over the line," his grandfather noted and continued to work on his puzzle without missing a beat. "Jamie toed the line, but he was wrong to write you up. You went into his house at the 2-9 and disrespected him in front of his own command, though. Imagine how you would have felt if he had walked into the 5-4 and did the same. For your information, if you had tried that with me, I'da had your badge in my drawer by now… hero cop or not."

"Yeah, well, he's not like you, is he, Pop? He's not like me, or Joe, and he's not even like Dad! I swear sometimes we're not even related! I guarantee you even the PC would have put the patrol guide down for once to save those hostages, but all the Boy Scout can do is give me a five-day RIP for making him look bad while he was waiting around for someone else to come and do his job! What the hell kind of cop is that?"

"Danny, I told your brother this same thing back when he was a rookie and felt like everyone was comparing him to you. Good cops are made by the world they police. I was the kind of cop I needed to be in my time when I came up. So was your dad. So were you, but now your dad runs the city and the world around us is changing. You need to adapt to the changes, and I'm a dinosaur," he chuckled before growing serious. "Jamie is the kind of good cop we need to have in the department going forward. You may not like it, but he's part of command now. You can handle yourself however you want with anyone else outside of the 2-9, but when you're on his turf, you need to listen to him as a sergeant, not your brother."

"Like hell," Danny gritted through his teeth as he jumped to his feet, unmoved by his patriarch's sage advice. "I saved the guard's life yesterday, and I'll never apologize for that!"

"And just where do you think you're going?" Henry frowned, unsure if his oldest grandson was headed back down to his brother's room to continue the argument or set to leave in a decidedly un-Reagan-like manner when one of their own was hurt. Unfortunately, in this instance, it was the latter, although he conceded neither choice was a particularly good one at the moment, and perhaps stepping back to cool down was the right thing to do in the end.

"I'm getting Sean and taking him home," Danny declared with an antagonistic nod back down the hall toward Jamie. "He doesn't want me here, anyway," he bristled before turning heel and walking down the hall to poke his head in the room where Frank and Sean were finishing up their cranberry juice cocktail and sugar cookie snack as the final family pair were released in good condition. The technician from the blood bank had already thanked them and was gathering her supplies and precious donations before departing.

"C'mon," he waved to his son. "If you're done, we're leaving."

"Daniel," Frank sighed, disappointed in his oldest as he threw his cup into the trash and rolled down his sleeve. "Don't do something you'll regret. Stay and work this out."

"Hey, Erin said I'm not allowed anywhere near the kid, and he told me to go to hell, so I'm obeying orders and heading back to Staten Island where I belong. Besides, I've got a five-day vacation thanks to him, remember?" he added sarcastically. "Might as well enjoy it since I've got nothing better to do. Let's go, Sean."

"Tell Uncle Jamie I hope he's feeling better," Sean added glumly as he envisioned the hour-plus ride home in the car with his father in a mood like this, plus the possibility of being confined in close quarters afterward in the same house with that attitude outside of school until Danny went back to work. "See ya, Grandpa," he waved before dutifully following his father to the elevator, and the pair entered without another word between them as the door opened, and Dr. Patricelli stepped past them and out on the floor. Frank caught sight of her as she made her way over to him.

"Commissioner, may I have a moment in private?" she asked, still conflicted over the legality and morality of what she was about to do, especially given her very new and tenuous position at this hospital as Chief of Emergency Medicine. It was a title she had sought after for an entire career, and one even harder to come by as a woman. That reality was not lost in her decision since this very powerful man before her with strong political ties across the city could undoubtedly see everything taken away on a whim if the news she was about to deliver was poorly received. Given what it was, there was little doubt that would be the case, but at least her conscience would be clear, she reasoned. If it were not for the fact that Mary had once upon a time been under her care too, and that particular interaction was so indelibly ingrained in her memory, she might have been able to justify remaining mute and burying some essential information, but Elaine Patricelli was as ethically and morally bound as the concerned father before her.

"Is anything wrong?" Frank asked preemptively, able to read that look and begging her to get straight to the point. "Has he gotten worse?"

"No, I've just checked. Jamie's still stable and doing very well," she reassured. "Almost too much so. I've given him some fluids and medications to make him feel better, and now he is convinced that all of this is unnecessary and wishes to leave. The latest numbers show his hematocrit level has dropped slightly, however, as was expected, so I've ordered him to receive one of the donated units of blood as soon as the lab has it tested and prepared."

"Then what is it?" Frank demanded nervously and held his breath in anticipation even as she ushered him back in the room and closed the door.

"Let's have a seat," the doctor advised in the universal sign that bad news was indeed about to be delivered. "I feel that I need to share some information… without judgment," she began and pulled a sheet of paper out of a folder before sliding it across the table. It was a simple blood type calculation chart comprised of rows for A, B, AB and O labeled for a mother and father with the possible outcomes listed in each cross-referenced block.

"What am I looking at?" Frank grumbled as, despite his host of other successes and strengths, he'd had a well-known lifetime mental block against all things within the realm of study in biology, and genetics in particular, so tended to tune them out immediately.

"I'm going to leave this with you," she declined to answer directly, hoping that in some way might insulate her from an angry reproach. "I just remember that day in the elevator when your son was born," she reminded and thought about the way Mary had beamed with pride at her husband with the new baby laying across her chest in the way only a mother could do. "Your wife was beyond happy, and all she kept saying was how much he looked like you and his brother, Joseph, was it? Not the Danny I met today," she concluded since those two bore little resemblance in her opinion. "It was a beautiful moment I'll never forget."

"Nor will I," Frank assured as his brow continued to furrow. "We tried for a little while to have another without success and Mary went to see a few doctors before we were able to get pregnant again. She was desperate to have another baby and knew that might be our last chance, so it made things extra special when Jamie was born."

"Yes, I called over to St. Vincent's and checked her medical records to confirm some of the details I should have noticed back then…" Dr. Patricelli continued to hedge in guilt as she maddeningly refused to fill in the blanks at a faster rate, hoping that by giving him a few clues, the former detective would be able to piece this together on his own, if in fact, he was not already aware, to begin with. Given the contradictory comment he had made earlier, though, that did not seem to be the case, and her research had only provided another worrying element that had jumped off the page like a red flag—the name of that aforementioned specialist. "You were patients of Dr. William Milner from Pinehurst."

"Yes, I think that was his name, but we only saw him twice for some sort of test and that was well over thirty years ago, so what the hell does any of this have to do with what's going on today?" he demanded, his patience growing shorter now with the sense he was going to have to figure this out on his own. _That damn chart, _he stared back down and tried to refocus on the facts as they were known. Surely that had something to do with it.

"You must understand, my hands are tied," Dr. Patricelli's voice was fading away as if they were underwater while his struggling brain was finally starting to make some sense of what she was trying to say. Father's type O, he noted from the top of the fourth column as his eyes slid down the rows and over towards the left side where the mother's options were listed. Mary was type AB as Erin had reminded them just a short time ago, so the intersected box with the offspring's outcomes was listed as A or B, and no other possibility…

…not even one that matched his own wife's.

_How on God's green earth could that be true? Both she and Jamie were AB, mother and son—the perfect and rare match in fact—and he was definitely O as had just been confirmed by the very nice young woman with the purple-streaked hair who was chatting on about the weather and her plans for the weekend while she was drawing his blood—the same blood that could be used to help save his youngest's life. There must be a misprint, _he puzzled, still in denial for just a second more as he tried without success to make the known pieces fit together before the hammer fell and life as the Reagan family had come to know it would be forever altered.

_"THE HELL?!" _he snapped angrily and looked up in shock, hoping to be convinced that it was his lack of aptitude for this particular subject that was the problem and not the other blatant possibility which had just ripped a very large, painful hole directly through his heart and left him reeling like no other blow, save one or two ever had before. Somehow though, this loss seemed almost worse, since it was coupled with a perceived betrayal from the love of his life on a level he had never experienced before, and the ramifications were hitting him now at warp speed with force. _How could she?! __After all they had been through together? And to never tell him, not even on her deathbed? _He had been there in that elevator at Mary's side the moment Jamie was born and had absorbed every tiny little freckle and identifying mark on his son that had remained constant through the years. There was no doubt the baby boy that she had lovingly carried and delivered in a most unusual way was the very same child who had grown into the smart, handsome, kind-hearted, yet decidedly pig-headedly stubborn and opinionated man who was lying in a hospital bed just down the hall, injured and in the middle of a row with his brother, but otherwise blissfully unaware that a nuclear-grade bombshell had just been unleashed in their lives.

"I'm sorry, Commissioner. I just thought you should know," were the words of a hollow apology left hanging in the air from the entirely wrong person as Frank Reagan felt like all of the oxygen had been drained from his lungs and the world as he knew it turned upside down.

* * *

_Poor Frank, that was an unimaginably tough thing for any father to hear, but it will be even harder to share that news with the rest of the family, and in particular his youngest son, before all this plays out. Next up, a heart-to-heart with Henry after a late night of worrying sets him in the right direction as his initial reaction is anger toward a wife and mother who was no longer around to defend herself._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Huh, imagine my surprise in finding you down here," Henry remarked with typical cynicism as he made his way into the darkened kitchen just after five-thirty the following morning only to discover his son sitting alone, as expected, and staring off into space. While he fully anticipated this mulling response given the previous day's fight between Danny and Jamie, and the fact that it was likely to continue now even while the youngest one of them was sequestered at Kings County for the rest of the week, there was something disconcerting about the way Frank had closed himself off at the hospital. After Danny's abrupt departure, the normally attentive father had only briefly visited with Jamie and Eddie before excusing himself, calling for his detail and returning home alone where he had remained locked behind a bedroom door until now.

The Reagan family patriarch knew this because ever since Erin dropped him off here a few hours later, he had been up nearly the entire night himself listening for the absent sounds of the dust buster, the television, pacing, or those multiple pointless trips to the refrigerator which were more typical of his son's behavior during family conflict like this. Instead, this time there had been radio silence until about ten minutes ago when that door finally opened and shuffling feet could be heard descending the stairs.

That in and of itself was concerning to the older man, as was the fact there still had been no detectable response to his presence.

"The boys will come around, although they couldn't be more different, could they, eh?" he tried to lighten in an unfortunate way given the circumstances. "And Jamie will be fine… you'll see. Chief Patricelli said so before I left, and Eddie stayed there on a cot overnight just to be sure," he encouraged, having lived through enough such drama in this very house to be confident of that, at least he thought so until the first words out of Frank's mouth had his own father going weak in the knees and catching himself only to sit heavily in the opposite chair.

"There's a reason they're that way, and you won't like it," Frank revealed sadly as that reference hit home, and something which had always been cast as a family joke suddenly wasn't the slightest bit funny anymore. "Elaine also said he's not mine… can't be. Mary cheated on me, Pop," came the flat, gut-wrenching reply out of left field that likewise stunned Henry to the core and had him thinking this was all part of a dream… either that or he was in the middle of having a stroke.

"The hell did you just say, Francis Reagan?!" he managed to gulp out, praying that somehow in his head, he had gotten that wrong. "Did you even hear yourself?"

"It's true, Pop."

"How could you possibly know that? After more than thirty years? Why now?!"

"Jamie's not my son," Frank reiterated and finally looked up with a pair of deeply bloodshot eyes and heartrending sorrow in an abbreviated explanation that made it evident there was no mistake, no matter how painful it was. "Not by blood… the types, hers and mine… Elaine double checked and showed me this paper," he revealed and pushed the hated, folded-up chart toward his father as proof. "Look. AB and O… they can't make his... there's no chance."

"BULLSHIT! His and hers are exactly the same! I heard you say it last night! How can this be?" Henry demanded as he ignored the paper, growing angrier in denial instead.

"I never understood, then or now," Frank admitted sadly on multiple fronts as his eyes dropped back down in defeat to the table where a photo album impulsively grabbed from the stack in the living room lay open with Jamie's earliest baby pictures on display. "And I guess I never will."

"Francis, this doesn't make any sense," his father tried to backtrack from another, softer angle. "You were with the boy when he was born, and the two of you tried so hard for him, more than eight months from what Mary told Betty at the time."

"We did, at least I thought we did," he murmured and turned the page, a half-smile gracing his face involuntarily at the first informal group photo of all four children together on the couch. It had been taken right after the baby arrived home—an eight-year-old Erin carefully holding him, of course, the proper little mother, with Joe, six, and Danny, nearly ten, flanking them on either side—one with a shy, sideways smile that would one day be mirrored by his little brother's, and the other with the serious, distinctive brooding look that was still evident to this day.

"I thought we were so blessed when she finally got pregnant," Frank mourned what had been such a happy moment for the couple after a time of great uncertainty. "She wanted another so badly when Joe was past the toddler stage, and then when it didn't happen for that many months, we thought maybe it wouldn't. Her doctor said it could be scarring, so she sent us to a specialist for some kind of test that forced dye through her tubes, and he told us there were issues, but that our best chance was right after it was done. She was pregnant within weeks."

"You _are _blessed, Francis," Henry frowned at those words and the way Frank seemed to be distancing himself from Jamie. "I just don't understand how this happened. Mary would have never…"

"Pop," Frank stopped his father with a tone that told him instantly that belief wasn't necessarily true. "There was a time…" he started, dragging this hurt out from where it had been buried deeply for decades. "We had some problems just before that," he finally admitted.

"Problems?" Henry grumbled, refusing to believe his ears as his only living child's marriage had always seemed impervious to everyone else around. _"That _kind of problem?! And you never said anything about it before?"

"The kids were getting older… Joey was four and about ready to start school. Mary had given up her job to raise them and was feeling unsettled and lonely with the thought of an emptying nest during the day while I was too focused on moving up the ladder in the department," his son added with deep regret. "I was gone more than I was here for her, had a run of some tough cases that got inside my head, and we fought… a lot. When I was home, I took my eye off the ball. She was hurt and needed someone to talk to."

"Francis," Henry sighed. "Your mother and I knew there were times Mary and you weren't on the same page, but never this. Why didn't you say something?"

"We hid it… maybe too well; she had no one else to turn to because of that," Frank continued, explaining why his parents had been kept out of the loop. "So, Mary decided to volunteer somewhere just to get out of the house when Joe started pre-school. She joined the Hudson University Literacy program and went up there in the mornings three days a week. That's when she started to get close to the professor running the group, a man named Thomas Vintner."

"Vintner?" Henry huffed, sensing where this was going now and feeling an instant level of hatred towards the suspected interloper. "What the hell kind of name is that, anyway?"

"English, I think," Frank answered.

_"English?" _Henry scoffed as he applied even more insult to this grave injury. "Gawd… the next thing you'll tell me is he had one of those damn annoying accents too!"

"Yeah, something like that," his son begrudgingly revealed, knowing his father's deep Irish disdain for the Brits would only be intensified.

"How the hell did you find out?"

"He called here once when I happened to be home unexpectedly during the morning to change and shower after three straight days in the squad on a kidnapping case. I thought it was the Captain ordering me back in and picked up after Mary had already answered down here… he was asking her why she hadn't shown up to meet him for breakfast, yet… her special tea was getting cold. I banged in for the next three days," he revealed, as the jealousy felt at hearing another man call for his wife had finally been enough to get his attention and bring him to his senses. "I told you and Mom the two of us had come down with the flu… asked if you would keep the kids away over the weekend, and then never left the house. We talked and cried and yelled… and then I finally _listened _to her, Pop; I hadn't been doing that for a long time," he finished shamefully, admitting his own fault in this. "We patched things up after that and never looked back. When it was better, she wanted to try for another baby, and that's what took us through the next year."

"Mary," Henry mouthed as he sat back, dumbstruck at the thought. "I never…"

"She swore that nothing like that happened between them, or ever would," his stricken son continued. "Not physically, at least… he was just someone to talk to; they could discuss novels and art… not crime scenes and cop shootings or who stuck the grilled cheese in the VCR. He paid attention to her, Pop. At least that's what she said at the time, anyway," Frank bit at what seemed like her blatant unfaithfulness in that regard now.

"That day was a real eye-opener. I saw what I was doing to my wife and family, and I tried to make it better… but I guess maybe not hard enough."

"Why him?" Henry demanded. "You said it was months… almost a year later before she got pregnant with Jamie. You think she stayed with him all that time?"

"As soon as I heard… my mind went straight there. There was never anyone else as far as I knew. After we had that fight, I thought we recommitted to our marriage, and she promised to leave the Hudson group and Vintner behind. I guess when she was upset that things weren't working out for a baby as we hoped… maybe she went back."

"I don't believe it," Henry insisted, even after that explanation, shaking his head and refusing to think the worst about his daughter-in-law who he and his wife had grown to love as their own.

_"Not _Mary! You're selling her short!"

"POP!" Frank railed back in renewed anger against that denial as he circled back to the other issue at hand. "Do you really think I wanted to tell you these things after all this time? How can you defend her? Vintner was 5'9", around 170, sandy brown hair and hazel eyes. Sound just about like someone else you know?! If not him, who the hell else _could _it be? JAMIE'S NOT MINE, and we'll never know the truth now!"

"Then go confront the bastard!" Henry barked back. "Get a DNA test and make sure!"

"I… I can't," his son admitted as he had already resigned himself to never having that particular satisfaction. "A couple of months after Mary fell pregnant, he stepped out in front of a bus on the Hudson campus and was killed. He's been dead for over thirty years; single, no family in this country I know… _knew _of," he corrected sadly. "He was cremated and shipped back to England. We went to the service."

"Hit by a bus… accident or suicide?" Henry asked, deliberately leaving out the third possibility in case his son had suspected what this man might have done back then.

"Unknowable."

"Francis," his father sighed with that unspoken question just to be sure.

"I didn't know about this back then, Pop," Frank reiterated flatly, although if he were completely honest, he would have had to admit there had been fantasies of the sort at the time, though none of them involved what actually happened. "If I had… it wouldn't have been a bus."

"Maybe that's what he was afraid of."

"Maybe he should have been."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Henry asked the million-dollar question no one really wanted the answer to. "You said Dr. Patricelli was the only other one who knows. Jamie is your son, Francis… as much as any of the others. What you're feeling right now is not against him, and what we didn't know for all these years…"

"It hurts, Pop," Frank acknowledged with a deep breath as the feelings were pressed against his heart once more and squeezed until the pain was almost too much to bear. "More than anything I've ever felt since losing her and Joe. She _never _admitted to being unfaithful… not even through the cancer. I can't believe she'd take something like this to her grave. Even if there was the slightest doubt in her mind, after everything we went through together, she could have at least left me with the truth!" he shouted as the anger at this untenable situation and Mary's role in it was returning.

"How can I do the same for Jamie?" he asked as his eyes met his father's. "How can I ask him to sit in this same place where I am years from now when something else brings this to light, and I'm gone and can't answer for it? When one of his own children needs something from him, or they grow up to be smarter than any of us and can understand or pay attention to those damn charts. He'll hate me for it, just like I…" he trailed off for several moments after applying that same emotion to his departed wife before continuing. "I just can't believe no one noticed before, not even him. That's what was probably on the damn science test he got a C on… the only one he ever brought home," he mourned. "And all she could say when he was born was how much he looked like me and Joe… said it over and over right there in the elevator. Elaine heard it and still remembers that to this day; that's why all this stood out to her. I thought Mary was proud; turns out it must have been a relief and they really took after her side," he finished bitterly.

"Maybe she didn't have any doubts because of that," Henry counseled. "But maybe you should. If you're going to open up this can of worms, it's going to affect Jamie the hardest, but also Erin and Danny. You're going to tarnish the memory of their mother forever."

"You think?" Frank blasted back. "What are my options? Vintner and Mary are both dead! It's not like I can ask either of them or do you want me to use that medium Danny had on his last case?"

"I think it looks bad, but I'm ashamed to say _my _son is being a piss-poor detective if you're going to let it go at that!" Henry railed back adamantly. "What if you're wrong somehow? Do you really want to do that to Jamie… to send him down this road alone knowing what it's going to do to him and the rest of the family only to find out there's another explanation? You owe him and Mary more than that! What about those genealogy sites that are popping up all over the damn place like the one they used to catch that rapist in California a few months ago? Somebody's fifth cousin from Kalamazoo submits a cheek swab from a kit they got for Christmas and presto! They nail a guy that's been on the most wanted list for decades."

"So what? I create a fake profile and put his DNA out there to see where it hits? What if that opens him up to something else?" Frank argued, those staunch ethics of his putting their heels down and digging in. "I can't, not without his permission. It's not even mine to give… Mary saw to that," he added resentfully and gave in to a little self-pity over his own hurt.

"Then the PC of the biggest police department in the county and a forty-odd-year veteran of the force better figure out a way to use the resources he has at hand to get it done!" Henry ordered as his temper flared at that last statement—by God, they didn't abandon one of their own in that way no matter the circumstances. "Because if you insist on telling him, then you're not going to put that boy through the pain of what's to come without at least first trying to make sure the answers you're giving him are the right ones! You know how he's going to take this, don't you? Do you want to lose him because of it too? It may not be by blood, but you need to prove to YOUR SON that he's more important than any of your feelings against what his mother did or might have done. Francis, you can't just dump this in his lap with a half-assed explanation of what you _think _might have happened and leave it for him to figure out alone! And by the way, since you didn't ask, this hurts _me _too!" he reminded with that fact fully evident in his breaking voice and the tears in his normally staunch blue eyes. "HE'S A REAGAN, SO, QUIT SAYING HE'S NOT YOUR SON! Stop pretending the way Jamie came to be with us matters more than he does! Because if it's not your blood running through him, then neither is mine or your mother's! But that doesn't mean I love that boy any less or would treat him differently now, and neither should you!"

Frank's sad eyes followed the older man as he got up and stomped out of the room with palpable anger and disappointment showing, only to go get dressed and prepare for a promised visit with that much-loved grandson at the hospital later that morning. It would be difficult, but he knew his father would be able to go there with a game face on and hold these secrets for now because Jamie needed his support after the fight with Danny and subsequent injury. He also realized Henry was right about everything else that was said but processing the gamut of emotions this revelation had invoked was proving to be one of the hardest things he had ever faced before.

After a few more minutes of painful contemplation, a glance at the clock showed it to be just past six. There were a few toothbrushes upstairs in the hall bath, some items in a special box in his closet, and one person in this world he could trust with them and to hold his confidence in this matter no matter the outcome.

"Abigail," he addressed the voice on the line when she answered promptly. "I need your help with something. Can you come into the office early this morning? And Abby," he warned with a hard swallow. "This is need-to-know only."

###

"Do you even know what you're doing?" Sean spat as the smoke detector went off yet again in the little house in Staten Island as his father was attempting… and failing… after three tries to make waffles in the fancy double Belgian press Linda always used. "Stop it! They're all black anyway! I'm not even hungry anymore, and I'm gonna be late for school!"

"Hey, at least I'm working on it!" Danny yelled back with his temper flaring hotter than the crisped and blackened batter even as he gave up on the effort and yanked the plug out of the wall before shoving the appliance back toward the sink.

"Are you?" Sean challenged before grabbing his backpack and slinging it on his shoulder, having already grown tired of his father's tirade over this hostage situation and the ensuing conflict with his uncle which had only intensified since the previous day's fight and the ugly scene at the hospital that night. "Just go put in your request for that trial room thing and get the whatever revoked so you can go back to work before this house burns down too!"

"If I do that," Danny did his best to ignore that painful jab and explain his sudden reluctance now that his brother was removed from the process. "It gets bumped up to the Chief of Patrol to review since the sergeant who put the charge on me isn't available. No judge is going to overrule a boss that high up on something like this. By the time Uncle Jamie gets back on the job, my suspension will be long over, and it doesn't really matter if they erase that black mark off my sheet by then."

"So, it has nothing to do with you being right or wrong then," Sean pointed out. "You just wanted to fight with him some more since you didn't like taking orders from your little brother. Jack and I always get in trouble when we do stuff like that, especially when Mom was here! She said we're family and should be better than that!"

"Go to school!" his father ordered in frustration and watched while his son grabbed an oversized cookie from the counter before taking a big, deliberate bite of it for breakfast instead of the intended home-cooked waffle before leaving in a huff.

"Fine," Danny seethed after the front door slammed shut. "You want me to prove I'm right? I will."

* * *

_Uh-oh, lots of anger running through that chapter as Frank and Danny try to come to grips with what's happening on different fronts. Next, as the days pass, a few more characters begin to feel the pain as neither the Commissioner nor his oldest son is able to outwardly rein in all their feelings at first until the results of a particular test might force them to work together. As a bonus, and by contrast on a lighter note, at least for now, we get to see where Eddie and Jamie are currently at in this as she pays him a visit._


	6. Chapter 6

_Happy non-BB Friday everyone! A nice long chapter to distract from the fact there's no new episode tonight. Boo._

* * *

Chapter 6

"So… you wearing Kevlar?" DCPI Garrett Moore wondered out loud as he sat nervously in the Commissioner's office the following Tuesday morning at 1PP, alone except for his compatriot, Lieutenant Sid Gormley, who was likewise awaiting Frank's uncharacteristic late morning arrival.

"Me? No, but maybe I ought'a considering the way he chewed me out yesterday over those missing staffing reports," Gormley admitted as he too fidgeted in one of the big oversized chairs in front of the empty but still imposing desk. "Didn't seem too happy this morning either when I talked to him. Haven't seen the Boss's mood like this for a while. Thought he was gonna take me out behind the woodshed and put me outta _his _misery last night."

"Yeah, he's been kinda touchy the last couple of days," Moore acknowledged in a vast understatement as he had received much the same treatment. "Wonder what's up?"

_"Kinda _touchy? And like you gotta ask," Gormley snorted. "You have a Sergeant Reagan writing up a command discipline on a Detective Reagan, and then the two of them coming together like matches and gasoline under the PC's own roof. How do you think that Sunday dinner went? I'll tell ya, chain of command was broken, so the Boss had no choice but to back Jamie, and Danny was Danny and blew his stack… there's probably a crack or two in the ceiling," he answered his own question and shuddered from experience, having been on the receiving end of some of those famous Daniel Reagan tirades from his time as the CO in the 5-4 squad.

"So, I'm guessing maybe Jamie didn't back down this time since he had the stripes on his side." Moore mused just as Gormley's phone dinged with a message and he offered a deep sigh after reading it since it pertained directly to their conversation.

"No, but now Danny isn't either. Yesterday, he put in a formal request for a hearing in the trial room to fight the charge even though he knows Jamie won't be able to show until after his suspension is up. That puts the Chief of Patrol on the hot seat, and he's not too happy about it. That was the Chief of D's letting me know he's going to lift it in the meantime, so the two of them are going to war too."

"Over the Reagan brothers fight?" Moore gasped as he considered the PR ramifications of that. "Do those two realize what that's going to do to their old man if this hits the papers?"

"Knowing them, they're just like him and don't care about the politics… only about what each one of them sees as right."

"Jamie is a by-the-book, chain-of-command guy, just like his Dad." Moore pointed out.

"And Danny is all about results, also like the old man," Gormley countered.

"So, do you think it's a coincidence one of them ended up at the hospital?"

"Nah," Gormley shook his head. "And now I'm not so sure that was from taking down the perp like they said. My money's on a knock-down, drag-out brawl in the back yard. That would have been enough to set the Boss off like this."

"C'mon, it didn't happen like that, but this isn't the first time Frank's had to deal with his kids getting into it with each other, especially those two, so why is he this upset about it?" Moore ignored that improbable scenario and stuck to his original premise with a shrug. The pair was still in the dark about the paternity issue as Abigail Baker was the only one of the so-called Dream Team in the loop, and she had held true to her promise to keep that well under wraps until now.

"I don't think I've ever seen a pair of brothers so different, anyway," he added, pausing to check his phone just as she got up from her desk and overhead that comment while entering the office to inform them the Commissioner was in the building and heading their way.

"GARRETT!" Baker hissed, having lost her usually ever-present composure for a moment while thinking about Frank's current state and the way he might react to that observation. Determined to take Henry's prudent advice to either confirm or deny his assumptions about Mary's fidelity and his youngest's parentage if possible before bringing this up to Jamie and the rest of the family, he had confided in and enlisted his trusted assistant's help to do some of the necessary grunt work behind the scenes. Indeed, she arrived at her desk early once again and had been glued to her computer screen all morning waiting with bated breath for some expected rush DNA tests they prayed would shed some light on the situation.

"You won't say that again if you know what's good for you!" she continued.

"Why?" Moore countered as Gormley sat up, his own detective senses telling him that they had just hit upon something big out of the relative blue given her reaction.

"What do you know?" Sid demanded. "Does it have anything to do with Jamie being in the hospital?" he badgered prophetically, putting her directly on the spot.

"Yeah, Abby… come to think of it, you're the _only _one at 1PP he _hasn't _raked over the coals the past few days. So, what's going on with him?" Moore demanded as they ganged up on her.

"I'm not at liberty to say," Abigail rebuffed tightly, knowing they were on to her now like a pair of piranhas with blood in the water, but desperate to fluff all this over as quickly as possible before their boss arrived. "It's personal," she revealed the barest of information, hoping that would back them off just as the ding of the elevator was heard and the Commissioner and his detail arrived after yet another rather fruitless visit to the hospital.

"Good morning, sir," she greeted him professionally instead, taking his coat to hang as he made his way to the desk. "How is Jamie feeling today?"

"He was asleep again," Frank answered gruffly, deeply ashamed to admit to himself that he was more than relieved about that fact and had cowardly left for a second straight day in a row without disturbing his son. "I spoke to the doctor though, and he's doing well. She thinks he'll be discharged by Friday and back to work in two weeks but have to stay on administrative duty for another month or so until he's fully healed."

"Hell of a thing," Gormley commented just to test his après dinner brawl theory. "Never knew a cop to go down more than a day after an incident like that before."

"Well, I guess there's always a first," Frank bristled and looked directly over in a challenge as he sensed the Lieutenant was on a perilous fishing expedition. "He thought he just bruised some ribs and his shoulder until the aspirin kicked in and broke the clot. We were lucky…" he paused and considered for a second all of the ramifications of that single word given what this incident had revealed and the utter heartbreak it was causing. While it was true the family was facing a terrible challenge, one that was currently unbeknownst to most of them, had Jamie been injured more severely or even died as a result, none of that would have mattered in the end.

"We were lucky it happened at dinner and not in the middle of the night, or it could have been a whole lot worse than a couple weeks of missed work," he finished and fought to put everything behind this into perspective.

"Sure," Gormley backed away from that line just as quickly. "Thank God for that."

"So, what do we have?" Frank demanded as he sat down, determined to focus on the job and move the conversation as far away from this topic as possible.

"Well," Moore hesitated as the Reagan versus Reagan trial room debacle had climbed to the top of his to-do list, but this certainly didn't seem to be the time to bring it up. If the PC was unaware, and if Jamie had to remain off the job for a period of weeks anyway, perhaps it would buy them time to resolve it without Frank needing to know. "I'm actually pretty well caught up," he fudged instead.

"And you?" the Commissioner challenged as he looked at Gormley directly.

"I… I got nothing important," the Lieutenant hedged as he exchanged a look with Garrett.

"Well, then you should get right on that," Frank sarcastically ordered as he sought to empty out his office after spotting Baker hurrying to back to her desk and saw her nod with a tight-lipped expression to let him know without a doubt those results had arrived.

"OUT!" he bellowed in no uncertain terms that sent the two confused men scurrying from his office and past Baker who was hovering protectively over her printer, snatching and turning over the pages of a lengthy file as soon as it spit them out to keep them from prying eyes.

"You have it?" Frank asked as soon as she returned, closing the door and locking it for privacy with a stack of paper in hand.

"Yes, sir," she acknowledged and approached to hand them over, assuming he would want to study the results himself.

"Read it," he sighed, then got up and turned his back at the window, unable to bear the pain of seeing those words in cold, hard, undeniable print himself.

"This is very technical," she advised with a deep breath, knowing his disdain for this particular type of information after scanning the first page with all of its definitions and protocols spelled out in mind-numbing fashion.

"Just cut to the chase, Abigail," he requested sadly, already convinced of the content which would no doubt confirm that Jamie was not truly his, and that his beloved wife had indeed stepped away from their vows at least once in their marriage—and what was worse, had carried those lies to her grave.

"In all analyzed PCR systems," Baker continued with obvious regret that belayed the truth that mattered most before it was spoken out loud. "Alleged Father Mr. Jim Doe does not show any of the genetic markers required to be present for the biological father of the child John Test A. The probability of Mr. Jim Doe being the biological father of John Test A is less than 99.9999%. Conclusion: based on our analysis, Mr. Jim Doe is excluded as the biological father of the child John Test A… I'm so sorry, sir," she added as her heart broke to deliver such news to the man who, at the very least, had been like a surrogate patriarch to her as well.

"Okay," Frank sighed and sadly bowed his head to stare at his shoes, having fully expected that outcome, although hearing it announced so formally still felt like a stinging hammer blow to his chest no matter how he had tried to prepare himself. "And the rest?"

"The relationship profile shows that John Test A is a half-sibling when compared to full siblings John Test B and John Test C… I am presuming those to be Danny and Erin," Baker added as she continued to skim through the rest of the cold paperwork with a critical eye at warp speed while Frank's shoulders just sagged in answer.

"Danny and Joe," he sadly corrected while rocking back on his heels. "We still have some of his things, so I… Joe and Jamie, they were so close to each other, more than just the way they looked… I had to know," he explained painfully while looking up to the heavens for some sort of forgiveness from his middle boy after doubting his wife even further back than their admitted rough patch given the circumstances.

"And before you go on there's no question in my mind that Danny is my son and Erin, my daughter."

"Understood, sir," Baker acknowledged as she hesitated on the next point, one that she had not received expressed orders for, but as a seasoned detective herself had proactively determined might be necessary.

"Is there something else?" Frank asked, that bile-like feeling of Mary's betrayal still rising in his stomach even as he sensed that his most trusted assistant was holding back too.

"After you gave me the samples and explained what you believed happened… something that could no longer be proven because the man… the one you suspected to be," she advanced while treading carefully and refraining from mentioning Thomas Vintner or his actions directly by name. "Since he is gone for so long, I took a chance and requested another search for John Test A through our databases… a familial DNA restricted to paternity. It's allowed in New York State and protects the subject's anonymity," she reminded.

"And there was a hit?" he wheeled around, stunned at the possibility that there might be some sort of resolution after having resigned himself to perhaps never knowing that answer.

"Yes, sir… but certainly not the one you were expecting," she revealed quietly and with great hesitation as honestly the information had just muddied the waters further given the fact that more than three decades had passed since Jamie's conception. "There's more recent a case in our system," she began to divulge the specifics. "A thirty-two-year-old man named Richard Bastien from Mapleton was convicted last year in the deaths of his wife, Emma, and three-year-old son, Matthew, after a final supervised custody exchange gone wrong."

"I remember," Frank frowned as the details came back to him and a few were hauntingly familiar now. "It was a contested divorce, and he was being denied all visitation after that point because a paternity test had determined he was not the father of the child."

"And Mrs. Bastien testified under oath that she did not have an affair, nor remember or admit to being sexually assaulted by any other man when he fought for his parental rights, but the husband didn't believe her and later used his car as a lethal weapon to run both of them down in the street," Baker finished. "He was finally sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in Sing Sing last month."

"And that man is related to Jamie and Vintner?" the Commissioner assumed errantly, wondering what other demons might come of this now such as the existence of a murderous half-brother.

"No, sir… that's… well, that's where none of this makes sense," she admitted in a puzzled understatement. "It was a hit on the profile of the boy, Matthew. That was part of the criminal proceedings and was entered into the system."

"He was three!" Frank gaped as he stared back, stunned at that admission as he tried once again to make sense of what was incomprehensible. "Had he lived, he would only be four or five today! Vintner has been dead for almost ten times longer than that!"

"I know, sir," Baker replied. "But the match is definitive, so it is highly unlikely Vintner is… well, was… related to this case, or yours, unless it was through something like sperm donation. There is no mention of that possibility in the file though and the Bastien's hardly had the means for such a thing," she determined as that just left more questions and Frank without a hated boogie man to place the blame, a notion that finally had him collapsing back in his chair in utter defeat. Of course, if Vintner were not the father, that put him at square one and there would be even more issues posed. Where had Mary met this other man, and who was he? Given the timeframe he would have to be in his fifties by now, minimum, therefore more than possible he was still alive and might try to insert himself into the picture if found. What kind of additional hell might that bring especially given the fact Jamie and Eddie were engaged and due to be married soon? Frank had not anticipated having to put even more on them, and here they were piling on levels to the tragedy like this.

"I can't do this, Abigail," he acknowledged in sorrow with his head in his hands. "How can I tell him that he's not my son, without giving him any other answers? How do I explain this to the rest of the family? To Erin and Danny? At the very least they still share a mother and have a right to know what she did. In the words of my father, I'll tarnish their memories of her forever too!"

"But Jamie _is _your son!" Baker insisted with a pressing huff to get her point across, much the same as Henry, imagining the rift that could develop between Frank and his youngest if he ever expressed that sentiment in the same way again. "Sir, you will always be his father and can't think of him any other way! There has to be an explanation; we just haven't found it yet!"

"What do you need me to do?" she continued after an extended, painful silence enveloped them both for several moments as Frank felt pressed against the wall and trapped with no place to escape.

"Get Detective Reagan up here, forthwith," he ordered sadly in a move that shocked even his own long-time assistant. "I need someone with fresh eyes to look into this."

"But, sir!" Baker protested. "Given the conflict between them right now, and how close he is to the situation, how can you possibly have Danny investigate this? You'll be asking him to look into his own mother's indiscretions and find proof that his brother isn't fully who he believes! That's not fair to either of them, and it certainly won't bring them back together when it's over!"

"He won't know… not at first, anyway," Frank explained miserably. "Based on those results, with Mary gone, I have to try to find the man that fathered Matthew Bastien as quickly as possible. The only way I know to do that after all this time is to put the best detective I have on it right away. We'll call it a cold case on a need-to-know basis, and I'll tell Danny he doesn't need to know. He'll accept that. Once we have the information, I can take it from there and explain why I did it this way to both of them, but… I just can't be involved in this part of it. My mind isn't clear," he admitted before adding another uncharacteristically weak plea and not yet knowing the decision of the Chief of Detectives. "Please, Abby... I know it's not right, but Danny is off the job now over that hostage incident at the 2-9."

"Except that he isn't." she corrected. "He's contesting the charge and the Chief Warner has lifted his suspension in the meantime. He's back at work at the 5-4 as of this morning."

"Which probably has Bitner in Patrol climbing the walls and ready to start an interdepartmental turf war over it," Frank guessed correctly, knowing his commanders and their disdain for each other well.

"Yes, sir."

"Then get Danny here anyway. We'll kill two birds with one stone. I'll handle it," he assured his assistant with a huff as he pushed his glasses back on his face, prepared for once to wield the PC's almighty power to make all that infighting go away. "I need Danny on this case; he'll drop the appeal. Jamie can't hear about any of this until he's healed from his injury, or for sure he'll make himself worse over it. He's recovering, but slowly, so he's going to be in the hospital for at least several more days. Other than Pop and you, no one besides Dr. Patricelli knows. It has to stay in this room and in the family for now. I'll deal with the consequences later."

"Understood," she conceded to that plan and sat back with sympathy in her expression given the toll this was evidently taking on him since he had appeared to age more than a decade in the last few days. "I can't imagine, sir…" she trailed off before standing up, ready to do his bidding.

"Please let me know if there's anything else you need."

###

"Hey, you're looking so much better now," Eddie breathed a sigh of relief after hurrying back to the hospital when her shift was over and rounding the corner to find Jamie sitting up in the bedside chair for the first time since his stay began with a meager-looking liquid-only dinner tray in front of him.

"Is that a little color I see back in your sweet cheeks, Mr. Reagan?" she teased while batting her eyelashes suggestively. "Maybe I should check out the other ones… you know, down below, just to make sure they're okay too, or are those only reserved for the pretty nurses I saw lined up in the hall to give you a sponge bath?"

"Ha ha," he smirked at her insinuation with an even deeper blush rising on that formerly too pale face since of course the offer was more than tempting, but with all the staff in and out constantly checking those damn numbers day and night, there would certainly be no opportunity for that. With his stomach rumbling in protest, there was something else on his mind more pressing at the moment, anyway. "Please tell me you brought an extra eggplant parm hero from DePaula's for me," he pointedly moved the conversation on instead and begged with woeful, pitiful, puppy dog eyes on full display while lasering in on the takeout bag she was carrying.

"Nope."

"Mac and cheese? Anything? C'mon, Ed!" he sighed in utter frustration when she shook her head. "I'll trade you my green Jello for whatever's in there! You love that stuff, anyway! You always said it has 'great mouth feel' or whatever the hell that is!"

"Not allowed, sorry," Eddie apologized and quickly hid the bag behind her back. "Dr. Patricelli said nothing solid yet because you're still on possible surgery watch. Your numbers are finally going back up though, so maybe tomorrow you'll be cleared. I can come back later after I eat," she offered with an equally suffering look. "But…"

"But you're starving because it's been like two whole hours since you were last on meal," he finished for her and sank his head back against the cushion. "Go ahead," he sighed in apparent defeat and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. "I'd rather have the company, anyway."

"Why is that?" she wondered while taking off her coat and quickly spreading out her enviable banquet of comfort food including fries, a bacon double-cheeseburger, and an extra-large, hibiscus-pomegranate iced tea. "Don't tell me you were lonely while I was at work, because I'm sure you had other visitors," she munched while doing her happy little food bob and imagined the rest of the Reagan family had come at various points during the day to keep tabs on him and assure themselves that their young member was recovering well.

"Just Pop again," Jamie admitted with a shrug as he longingly eyed a single fry before giving in and opening up the dreaded Jello cup instead. "And all he wanted to do was talk about stuff back when we were little kids like yesterday… it was another long walk down memory lane," he sighed, having no idea of the hidden agenda that had his grandfather so truly focused on reminding him about all those tight family ties. "I guess it's his not-so-subtle way of trying to get Danny and me back together."

"Your Dad didn't come again?" Eddie paused with a frown before she took a big bite of the juicy burger, perplexed by Frank's absence and seemingly sudden lack of attention. "He left early the first night, and then when I talked to him yesterday, he said he stopped by, but you were asleep," she finished with her mouth full. "Do you think he's mad about the fight still?"

"No, he'd just repeat ad nauseam that we're grown men, so it's up to us to work it out. He's probably just busy, you know, keeping the ten some-odd million people in the entire city safe, and Erin's in court on some big case all week," Jamie added in their defense without even mentioning a likewise absent brother who had been told in no uncertain terms to leave two days before and hadn't returned either. "I don't think Dad was feeling well that night, anyway; he looked kind of out of it after giving blood. Maybe he's afraid of getting me sick. It's fine," he assured, having no inkling that his father was deliberately keeping his distance for now since the two could read each other so well. "There's nothing anyone can really do, anyway. I was dizzy yesterday, so they gave me another unit and wouldn't let me get up or do anything else until now. Basically, I've either been mostly sleeping or watching TV. That's why I told you not to bang out again. Besides, people will start to talk at the precinct."

"Would that be so bad?" she wondered out loud. "The wedding is getting closer, and we have a date now… we'll have to spill the beans sooner or later and I'm going o have to put in for a transfer. Since you'll be on modified for at least six weeks, maybe this is the time so everything will all hopefully blow over before you come back."

"Yeah, maybe… but right now I just want to think about getting out of here and going home with you. The doc said no dice until Friday at the earliest now though. How about we agree to table this until then, okay?" he asked, suddenly growing tired again and not in the mood to discuss anything having to do with the 2-9 or this mess with Danny that would no doubt be waiting to rear its ugly head again as soon as he returned.

"Sure," she frowned, reading the reasons behind that avoidance like a book, but all things considered, willing to cut the man she loved a little slack for now.

Little did he know that sibling rivalry would oddly be both the greatest and least of his worries by that point in time.

* * *

_Poor __Jamie, he has no idea what's coming, but then again, neither does a certain Detective Reagan whose outlook has yet to improve after a forced time-out, even as he answers the call to face his father in the big office at 1PP. An unexpected assignment might just throw him directly into a wrathful sister's path and reveal the truth about his brother in an unkind way. Loving the circular path of this as we "werk" through the family's issues and force them back together, lol._


	7. Chapter 7

_Happy BB Friday! Looking forward to tonight's new epi!_

* * *

Chapter 7

"You wanted to see me, Commissioner?" Danny's resigned but dutiful voice beckoned from the doorway to the big office at 1PP an hour or so later. After his appeal request set off a major kerfuffle between the Chiefs of Patrol and Detectives, he really wasn't surprised to find himself summoned here today with a "forthwith" or two thrown in by an insistent Detective Baker. However, the next orders he received were surprising, to say the least, especially given his father's penchant for generally letting sibling battles run their due course.

"I did," Frank acknowledged in a rough voice with his back still turned, having vacillated between pacing and standing at his favored window perch ever since his assistant had delivered those puzzling DNA results. With no other clues, he had spent that time racking his brain going back and forth over the past three decades in an unsuccessful effort to determine who this mysterious marital trespasser might be.

"Come in and close the door."

"Look, Dad," Danny offered less formally before defending his actions once they were alone. "I know you're pissed about me taking this up the chain with the kid still in the hospital, but put yourself in my shoes, okay? You're working a case outside the precinct. A call comes in, 10-30, robbery in progress, shots fired. So, what do you do?"

"I hightail it to the scene," Frank sighed in resignation as he had no choice but to let his oldest son get this rant out of his system before they could put it behind them and move on to more important things.

"That's right, you roll up, and there's a hostage inside with a bullet in him."

"Danny, I…" his father tried to interrupt without success.

"So, an opportunity suddenly presents itself to take out the perp. Okay? You know if you hesitate for one second, that opportunity is lost. So, what do you do?"

"I go in," Frank confessed reluctantly, knowing from experience Danny would seize on that admission as a sign of total vindication.

"That's right! You put your ass on the line, you save the day, and what do you get in return? A black mark on your record? Oh, and then you go to the boss in charge, who in this case, yeah, happens to be my kid brother, who's a pain in the ass. You plead your case, but he won't budge. So, what do you do then? Come on, what do you do then?" Danny sighed when there was no answer forthcoming. "So, I called the Chief of D's."

"You called the Chief of D's," Frank allowed with a frowning nod upon that point before taking control back and flipping the conversation completely. "And now, you're going to call him back and withdraw the appeal. I need you to accept the rest of your suspension."

"Come again?" Danny barked, totally thrown by that request. "So, you're taking Jamie's side in this, anyway? Didn't you just hear anything I said? I thought you told us we should work this out ourselves?"

"I'm not taking sides," his father assured truthfully. "In fact, I haven't even spoken to your brother about this since the night he was admitted. If I follow the letter of the law, I'd uphold his decision anyway, no matter what the judge decided in the trial room. The protocol is clear: the commanding officer on the scene makes the call. You broke procedure, even if you believed it was warranted. Now buck up, accept the consequences and move on."

"So, what's the point of having a judge then if the PC's just going to make up his own mind and ignore his own procedure?" Danny argued in frustration, exasperated by this sudden turn in the situation.

"The point is, I need your help on another pressing matter… off the books, and I don't have the time or willpower to referee a departmental pissing match between my chiefs or you and your brother while I'm at it!" Frank fired back, displaying a dark, sullen attitude as he returned to his desk with Matthew Bastien's redacted file waiting for review right where Abigail had placed it.

"You're kidding right?" Danny balked at that announcement since he had never known his father to blow by anything in this manner before. "Or are you just trying to put me back in the game on a wild goose chase to keep me busy, so I'll shut up about it and let the kid have this one… win-win?"

"Not at all, and it's not open for discussion anymore, detective," his father countered in the same no-nonsense tone and considered the situation closed as he moved on from the hostage debacle and into the more pressing trouble at hand. "Here," he indicated as he passed the file across the table and continued with only limited success to hide the fact that the situation was so emotionally charged on a personal level.

"Some information has come up related to a case… one of _my_ old cases. It's important, Danny, and I need you to be the one to follow this through for me," Frank sighed and revealed in such a reluctant fashion that his son finally pushed aside his own distractions for the week and noticed how utterly tired and out of sorts his father looked.

"Dad," he started with growing concern. He had been so focused on this whole command discipline thing and the conflict over it with his brother for the past few days that perhaps he had taken his eye off the ball. Jamie was in fact still in the hospital, but even Erin, the mother-hen and family barometer, had seemed unconcerned about that and more focused on the tough case she had been assigned when he had checked in with her earlier that morning.

"Are you okay? I mean this thing with the kid, it's not serious, right?"

"Your brother should be released on Friday morning," Frank quickly interrupted that line of thought and skated away from it to maintain distance with what was being asked here. "I'll feel better when he's home, and the two of you are done hashing it out, but the doctor said he's going to be fine. It's just been a long week already, and I'd like to have something settled by the end of it."

"Alright," Danny frowned, not completely buying into that explanation, but satisfied to have been heard and relieved nonetheless to hear that Jamie's injury wasn't more serious than what he had been led to believe. "Whatever you need."

"Good," Frank nodded, feeling as if he had dodged a serious bullet there. "And remember you're supposed to be suspended, so keep it off the radar… no Baez; you work this case alone and report directly to me."

"What case?" Danny prodded, his initial anger turning to curiosity at the odd request as he glanced through the file. "Looks like this one's already been solved, and it just happened last year, so why would it be yours? The guy was caught red-handed on a traffic cam mowing his wife and kid down and eventually pleaded guilty… what am I missing?" he added before looking up to study his father's face again. Apparently, it was something serious given the tight expression there, and this half-assed story about loose ends in a cold case was not up to the usual standards, but even with his own irascible temperament still flaring over the suspension, he knew better than to poke the bear too hard when Commissioner Reagan was in a mood like this.

"That's need to know, and you don't," Frank stuck with his plan and curtly declined to provide a more detailed answer on that front. "The boy's biological father is unknown," he explained as his son continued to familiarize himself with the circumstances of Matthew Bastien's short life and death. "There was a paternal DNA hit to that profile that has raised some questions. I've arranged for you to go up to Sing Sing tomorrow morning at nine sharp and interview the husband… see if you can figure out who really fathered that child, that's what I really need to know and don't be late," he warned.

"Wouldn't it help narrow things down if I knew what the connection was to your case?" Danny asked, now fully invested as Frank knew he would be. Given the fact this file seemed to be in no way related to the rift with his brother, he didn't see a typical lesson hiding behind it either. _Maybe this was just a favor for Dad, _he thought. There was no way to anticipate that in just over a day's time, the pieces of the puzzle would fall into place with a ridiculously limited amount of effort on his part and have his blood blazing again for another reason when the secret of how his youngest brother actually came to be in their family was revealed.

"No, this has to be independent of that for purposes I can't disclose," Frank continued to keep the painful auxiliary facts behind this hidden away in the dark, unprepared for yet another bizarre twist that would set the entire family in motion looking for justice except for one member who might just choose to walk away from them instead.

"Can't, or won't?" Danny pressed, never receiving a reply to his question before being summarily dismissed and sent away to gather background intel on his subject before that drive north to the infamous prison in the morning.

###

"Wait. So, let me get this straight," Sean attempted to make sense of his father's seemingly multiple about faces the following morning when they were once again getting ready to go their separate ways after breakfast. "You were suspended, then you put in an appeal, so you weren't suspended, then Grandpa told you to drop that, so you are suspended, but not really because he has you working a case. Makes total sense to me," he finished with a shake of his head while trying to follow that ass-backward logic. "All I know is you better warn Pop this time 'cause when Uncle Jamie hears about this, he's gonna freak and end up breaking more of Grandma Betty's plates on Sunday."

"So, we're not gonna tell him," Danny advised smugly, mood vastly improved and feeling vindicated over the fact that his father thought enough of his skills to pull him for this special assignment, whatever it was. An afternoon's research on the Bastien family had provided little ammunition to use in this interview except to note the imprisoned was a well-known prick and probable wife abuser. Despite that, Detective Daniel Reagan's strength had always been that ability to eke out information from a suspect on the fly, so he had every confidence that he would be able to report back satisfactory findings to 1PP by lunch. He finished tying his tie and putting the detective pin on his lapel before grabbing his badge and gun from the dresser top.

"Yeah, right," Sean snorted, knowing exactly how the Reagan family brotherly dynamic of oneupism typically worked given his own similar battles with Jack.

"Seriously. Grandpa made me promise to keep all this under the radar. As far as anyone else knows, I took the suspension and moved on… win-win," his father proclaimed.

"Duh, then why did you say anything to me?" his youngest frowned, hating that such a secret like that was put on him with the expectation of not spilling—something the son of a first-grade detective ironically was not, and never had been, exactly good at.

"Because you and I are a team now that Jack's gone to college, and I wanted to make sure you had my back at the table."

"More like you wanted to gloat a little and prove to me you won, even though it won't look that way to anyone else."

"And there's that," Danny acknowledged with a telling, self-satisfied smile even if that felt a little hollow given his father's strange demeanor which continued to bother him. "Have a good day," he added as he picked up his car keys and prepared to make the more than hour-and-a-half drive from their home in Staten Island up the Hudson River to the Sing Sing Correctional Facility where and uncooperative Richard Bastien would be waiting for him in an interrogation room.

###

"She whored around and put me in here!" Bastien shouted back as the interview continued to go bad after more than a half hour of contentious debate and Danny's temper shortened. "I'm sick of hearin' about it already! You already said you ain't gonna do nothin' for me, so why the hell would I want to help you?"

"Because you feel guilty for killing your son? He was just a little boy!" the detective finally lost his cool and shouted back. "You ran him and his mother down in the street like he was nothing!"

"Well, he _wasn't _my son, was he?! And I was gonna have to keep paying for him! To me, he _was _nothing because I never wanted him anyway! AND BESIDES THAT, IT WAS ALL ELLA'S FAULT! She double-crossed me and left as soon as she got what she wanted! Told me the doc she saw at that free clinic said she'd never be able to have a kid, so I'd let my guard down. Now the effing lawyers say I 'assumed all of the rights and responsibilities of fatherhood' because we were married when he was born! One judge says she gets full custody and I can't see him, and another one says he was going to hook my paycheck for child support every week, anyway! She cheated, and I pay for it! What kind of justice is that?!"

"Look, the whole system can be rigged against the father, I understand that," Danny tried a softer tactic, hoping to get more cooperation if Bastien felt he was on his side. "It's not always fair, but you gotta feel bad about the kid by now, don't you? You were pissed at her and whoever knocked her up, but not him. At least make that part of it right. I'm trying to find the guy she was with because the DNA says he's involved in another case," he revealed and then proceeded to construct a lie since he had no idea what was truly behind Frank's need to find out. "You really want to get back at whoever it was? Help me find him, and I'll make sure he gets put away in a place just like this, maybe even here," he insinuated while looking around. "Sing Sing takes a lot of prisoners out of the city… pretty good chance he would end up where you could personally introduce yourself. I'm sure you'd enjoy that."

"Yeah?" Bastien returned and sat back with his arms crossed. A master manipulator himself, he remained unmoved over his role in the boy's death and wondered if it was worth the effort to stay out of his cell and amuse himself for just a little while longer by stringing this annoying detective along. "What do you want to know?"

"Was there anything different in her life at that time she got pregnant? A new job? New friends?"

"Nothin'," the inmate contended before leaning across the table. "Don't you think I'da done something about it before I ended up in here if I knew who it was? Ella was a homebody," he contended with a sick little grin. "She knew better than to go anywhere without my permission."

"Yeah, you're a real charmer. I bet she thought she'd hit the mega-lottery. There has to be someone," Danny pressed. "Neighbor? Postman?"

"I told ya, _nooooo _one," Bastien drawled out, growing bored with this line of questioning after being subjected to it more than once. "Is that all you got? You guys all sing the same song. If the goddamn DA's office was gonna send someone else up here, at least try somethin' new."

"Come again?" Danny returned as his ears perked up. "What guy from the DA's office?"

"I don't know, some effing detective just like you. Don't you talk to each other? Big guy with a big gut and a heavy accent. Acted all tough and tried to get in my face too. Sounded like he was tryin' to get a part in that old Sopranos show… you know the gangster one? Had nothin' for me either except some stupid name like Abracadabra or somethin'."

_"Abetemarco?" _Danny huffed with an unrepressed frown as the name of Erin's lead investigator, and his chief nemeses, unexpectedly entered the picture. "He was here?"

"Yeah, couple weeks ago. Seemed to know a lot more than you do, maybe you should ask him," Bastien taunted with a smirk as he sensed he had succeeded in getting under this Reagan's skin the second that he'd mentioned Anthony's name and decided to use it to his advantage.

"So, what did he want to know?" Danny took the bait and bristled at that insinuation.

"Some of the same as what you're asking… but mostly stuff about that effing clinic in Pinehurst where Ella went for her woman stuff. Did I know the doc's name who screwed me? What the hell? Do I look stupid?" Bastien asked rhetorically. "If I did, I'd sue his ass for something… whatda they call it?"

"Malpractice," Danny answered and refrained from remarking on the stupidity question given the element of the man he was currently dealing with—someone that could raise a child as his son for three years and then murder him so callously in the name of egotism. Ironically at the same time, he had no idea that his father was wrestling with the opposite side of the issue, having watched with immense pride and love as his younger brother grew from that little baby born in the elevator to the Harvard-educated, soon-to-be-married, number-one-on-his-test NYPD sergeant he was today. Even given the fact that his wife had strayed in a similar manner and wounded him in a way that was unimaginably painful, Frank Reagan's main concern right now was not vengeance or hate toward the boy, but rather keeping that very child secure in the family fold as his own.

"Yeah, that," Bastien continued. "You find him, and I bet I could get a million dollars for my troubles," he fantasized. "Probably a lot more. And they'd have to give me a new trial, right? 'Cause he's the whole reason I'm in here," he asserted prophetically. "Maybe you could do that for me… get me that name, and I can help you out on this other thing," he bargained, finally finding an angle to use for some potential personal gain. "I'd give you a cut… make it worth your while."

"Sure, I'll get right on it, you son of a bitch," Danny snapped as he gathered up his folder and left the room with no further ado, having decided there was no use in continuing this pointless conversation when he had a better hook at the DA's office that might provide the intel he needed, especially if he showed up with her favorite non-fat salted mocha latte with extra caramel drizzle and played the role of a repentant older brother who had seen the error of his ways.

"Erin, c'mon, pick up… we have to talk," he sighed after his call went directly to voicemail for the third time before deciding to point his car south toward her most probable location at the 100 Center Street courthouse in Manhattan.

* * *

So_, Danny didn't get quite as far as he thought during that interview, or did he? At the very least it set him in the right direction now even if that means another heated exchange with a certain equally gruff Anthony Abetemarco as per their norm. Next, the three Reagans find their cases converging unexpectedly, and Erin's frustrations with her father are evident given the perceived interference from 1PP before Frank is forced to reveal the true reason behind his angst with his two older children first… something that shocks them and may not sit well with Jamie either when he's finally told the truth._


	8. Chapter 8

_Apologies for the late posting and thanks for the concerned check-ins. Was down flat in bed and totally offline for three days with bronchitis and fever - even slept through Friday's BB epi which was a good one! Lena (cough, cough Eva) is a hoot, but Frank handled her well and Danny got some closure. Thankfully back among the living now. _

* * *

Chapter 8

"Judge Martin shot us down," Erin revealed with frustration evident in her voice as she met with Anthony outside of the closed courtroom session where he was waiting while an appeal regarding the release of some confidential patient files had been denied. "If we don't get some compelling evidence by five on Friday, the statute of limitations is up for everything except first degree, and the DA told me he's going to pull the plug on this investigation. Without a witness statement, there's no way we have enough to substantiate that right now."

"Don't they always say a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich?" he questioned. "How come that never works for us?"

"I don't know, but the way things are going, this bastard's going to get away with it again," she sighed.

"Erin, we've tried everything we know to get this guy," Anthony assured as he attempted to keep up with her quick pace and clicking heels while she headed toward the front doors. "He must be the luckiest son of a bitch alive not to get caught before this, but we got no witnesses still breathing or willing to come forward."

"That's not going to stop Maureen Saunders from going live on New York 1 at 5:02 with her report though, is it?" Erin stopped and glared at her partner, reminding him they were staring down the barrel of more than just an average legal deadline. "She's going to bypass the grand jury's secrecy requirement by making it her own personal story. Then once it goes viral, she'll sit there and rake in the ratings as the backlash hits the DA's office. I'll be looking for another job by 5:04 and whoever takes my place is going to be sorting through this mess for the next ten years."

"Hey, you go, I go," Anthony commiserated as they started walking again albeit at a more comfortable, slower pace for him. "My pension is on the line here. Saunders is making it personal because it is… can you really blame her for that? Your boss, on the other hand, knows this is political hot potato because it's gonna open up a big can of worms that can't be shoved back up the hose when it comes down to it, and that's why he kicked the can over to you."

"Toothpaste," Erin sighed as she paused again and took a moment to correct and shorten his jumbled analogy. "The quote is '_Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, you can't put it back'… _no potatoes, no cans, and no worms."

"I thought that's what I said?" Anthony insisted innocently in his typical old-school Brooklyn-esque cop guise as they exited the building and started down the iconic steps leading to the street. "Anyway, that's why the judge stopped you from getting those patient records."

"It was a longshot, but since Elizabeth Reaves threatened to take out a restraining order if one of us showed up at her door again, it's all I had left," she acknowledged while multitasking and checking her phone as they headed toward the waiting car.

"Can't blame her for not wanting to get involved," Anthony admitted. "She's lived more than twenty-five years not knowing what happened… anyone would be in denial over that."

"This goes beyond denial!" Erin countered. "She flat out refuses to believe the science. Not even her daughter can get her to change her mind."

"Well, maybe she just doesn't see the point in bringing it out now in front of all her friends and family. Even if he's charged for what he did to her, you'd still have to prove it, and he's a slick fish, Erin. Some people would rather keep secrets and move on. Remember, she's the victim here and wants her privacy. I get that."

"It's a grand jury, Anthony. She could testify in secret, and the point is to keep this from happening again. We just need the indictment to open up those files. Then there would be others willing to come forward," Erin insisted self-righteously, having no idea that in a matter of hours she would be facing the exact same painful scenario and many of those questions herself. "We could nail his ass on enough counts to put him away for life."

"You can't guarantee her name would stay out of it, especially with this Saunders leading the charge. That woman has no scruples when it comes to getting the story out. She's gonna find a way to ratchet up the pressure on you too, mark my words," he added. "No way any of this stays mum for long."

"Maybe not, but seriously… if it were you, can you honestly say you'd be able to live the rest of your life with your head in the sand like that knowing it might happen to someone else?"

"I don't know… maybe," he admitted while thinking of his own beloved eight-year-old daughter. "For Sophia, absofreakinlutely! You can't tell me if this was Nicky and how that would blow up in the press that you wouldn't have to think about it."

"Not for a second," Erin refuted as she refused to accept that premise, even though at that very moment an unnoticed video camera lens was tracking and recording her movements from across the street. Another interested party was gathering some B-roll supplemental footage for that expected Friday evening exposé should she fail in her efforts to indict a particular man.

"Even if it got out on the five o'clock news?" Anthony argued before stopping suddenly short. "Ah, for cryin' out loud, don't look now, but we got company," he noted with an air of disgust as instead of the stealthy cameraman and the accompanying woman reporter, he focused on Danny Reagan standing out in the open and leaning up against the DA office's reserved Lincoln town car with his arms crossed.

"Great, just what I needed today on top of everything else," Erin huffed after looking up and likewise spotting her waiting and obviously impatient older sibling. "No surprise though considering he blew up my phone while I was in court," she added, instantly dreading this upcoming conversation given the current family dynamic. "Not today, Danny," she tried to cut him off before he could ask for the illegal warrant, her eternal, undying support in this brotherly feud over who was right in the hostage fiasco, or whatever else he was he was trying to peddle with that peace offering from her favorite coffee shop sitting by his side.

"Hey, can't a brother just stop by and say hi to his favorite sister once in a while?"

"You?" Erin snorted with her eyebrows raised, even as she accepted the gift, anyway. "Never. What do you want?"

"Who says I want anything?" Danny returned. Given the fact that they had been through this exact scenario hundreds of times before, he didn't even make much of an effort to play innocent anymore.

"Spill it," she demanded prophetically before opening the car door to convey the fact that she was in a hurry. "I don't have time to play games today."

"Who is Richard Bastien?" he demanded and then stared back in shock as the question itself was enough to make her drop the coffee and glare back at him after the full cup slipped from her hand and hit the street, splashing latte, whipped cream, and caramel across everyone's shoes—all of which was being captured at 24 frames per second in HD video.

"THE HELL DID YOU SAY?!" Anthony exploded overprotectively as their turf, and this current high-stakes investigation was once again infringed upon by what he considered the most annoying member of the Reagan family.

"JESUS, ERIN!" Danny sputtered back at her reaction as he gingerly attempted to shake the hot liquid off his shoes and spotted suit pants. "What are you doing? I don't have a clothing allowance like you do! Call off your attack dog! It was just a question!"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Anthony bit back in a loud challenge as he refused to back down.

"GUYS, KNOCK IT OFF!" Erin ordered as she swore under her breath at a now ruined pair of sale-priced suede Christian Louboutin pumps. "Aw damn it! These were my favorites! Danny, why are you here? How do you know about Richard Bastien?" she demanded while trying in vain to wipe them off with a tissue from her purse.

"How do I know what?" her brother returned, hoping for her to fill in the gaps as he had no good answer for that question except to admit their father had sent him out on some sort of secret mission—something he had been expressly forbidden to do.

"DANNY!" she shouted in an exasperated tone, in no mood for one of his games, especially given the personal consequences facing her with this case. "Out with it! You came here! NOW TELL ME WHY!"

"I CAN'T!" he argued back as the two siblings came to a familiar impasse and stared each other down.

"CAN'T OR WON'T?" she challenged in a familiar way as that answer and the fact that he was standing before her dressed as a detective in his suit and pin when from what she was aware, the word on the street had him suspended again and told her everything she needed to know. This underhanded interference had her father's warclub fingerprints all over it—something that was triggering considering the recent troubles she'd had with Frank Reagan, the NYPD Police Commissioner, and their contentious work relationship that had existed since her Bureau Chief promotion.

"What does Dad have to do with it?"

"What? How did you…?" he clammed up, knowing he had been matched by her prosecutorial attention to detail while confirming her suspicion. "I'm not at liberty to say," he swallowed hard.

"So, he _is _behind this!" Erin snatched upon that admission just as hard as her infamous detective brother would have latched on to a perp in the box. "Let me guess, he doesn't think I can handle this on my own, so he sent you in to save the day!"

"Handle _what?!" _Danny asked, thoroughly confused now and wondering just what the hell his father had thrown him into. "Listen, Erin, I have no idea what you're talking about! This isn't about you! He just wanted me to confirm a few things on an old case!"

"1PP?" Anthony chimed in. "Their file is closed! They got no dog in this fight! Bastien is already in the slammer up at Sing Sing!"

"I know that!" Danny defended. "I just came from there! He told me you were up to interview him a couple of weeks ago, and the guy was a real prick! I got nothing useful out of him for the old man, so I drove down here to see what you could tell me about it! I came here on my own! Dad didn't mention anything about you!"

"Then what did he want you to find out?" Erin demanded, desperate for any new angle to pursue on this case given the clock that was ticking down to that Friday deadline and everything else if that went bad. "TELL ME! I mean it, Danny! I already know he's involved and my career's at stake here!"

"He wanted me to find out who Matthew Bastien's biological father was," her brother finally admitted as he knew the trouble he was in on both sides of the stick here, and either his sister or father was going to use their end to poke him until he was done. "Said it had to do with an old case. That's all I know, I swear!"

"Son of a…" Anthony trailed off with another curse under his breath as he looked at his boss and read her mind. "What did you say about that toothpaste again? How are we gonna shove this back up the pipe?"

"Tube," she corrected again automatically. "We can't put it back in the tube," she sighed.

"The eff does that mean?" Danny questioned as he looked between them, thoroughly puzzled as the enormously painful secret Frank Reagan had been trying to keep for the last few days was dangling there right in front of his two older children now, and they had no idea what it was.

"Get in!" Erin decided and opened up the door to the car. "I don't know what's going on either, but we're going to find out! 1PP, and step on it!" she ordered the driver when they were all aboard.

###

"Francis," Henry's voice broke through his son's thoughts as the Reagan family patriarch arrived at the NYPD headquarters in the early afternoon bearing gifts of grilled pastrami, swiss, and sweet onion marmalade on rye.

"Pop, what are you doing here?" Frank questioned as he looked up from his desk. "I thought you were going to see Jamie again."

"You have to eat too," his father chided as he moved over to the couch and started to spread his repast out on the coffee table. "Besides, if I show up there, he's just going to wonder why it's me and not you again."

"I don't have anything to tell him yet," Frank admitted with a sigh as he walked over to join him before collapsing in defeat on one of the overstuffed leather chairs. "We spoke on the phone this morning already," he defended.

"But not face-to-face," Henry noted purposefully. "Maybe it's time you have that talk, anyway," he added while acknowledging how difficult it would be to start such a conversation. "You can't put it off forever."

"He's still recovering," Frank bargained as he had been wrestling with his conscience over the very same thing. "I don't want him to have a setback. Maybe when he's home, and Danny's had time to look into this Bastien thing for a few days," he added hopefully, having no idea that his oldest son and daughter had arrived and were on their way up to his office at that very moment to pop that bubble too.

"It's still not going to change the basic facts though, is it?" Henry questioned, albeit not unkindly, having been previously filled in on all the details as they were known. "And you have to accept that we may never find the truth behind it. Thirty-some-odd years is a long time."

"That's one thing I don't think I can do," Frank admitted sadly, not knowing the answer he was so desperately seeking would be revealed in only minutes but bring him no peace whatsoever—only more guilt and rage to be directed elsewhere. "How am I supposed to forgive her without that, Pop?" he continued. "I think about this every minute of the day… and I'm still so angry with Mary, I can't even go to the cemetery and look at her headstone."

"I don't know, Francis, but you're going to have to try. It's only been a few days, so just give it a little longer. Time does heal all wounds as they say, but this is a deep one. Once you have things settled with Jamie, maybe some of that will fade away, and we can all work through this together… speaking of which," he paused before adding some more advice. "I think you should have Eddie there when you tell him… she'll be able to help him listen even if he's upset."

_"If, _Pop?" Frank sighed since that fact was more than a given under these circumstances. He was still trying to formulate a further reply to that statement when a knock at the door summoned his attention.

"Sir," Abigail Baker interrupted. "I'm sorry for disturbing your lunch, but Detective Reagan, ADA Reagan, and Detective Abetemarco are here to see you without an appointment," she announced with one of those apologetic "I couldn't stop this" looks before showing the trio in.

"Okay, so to what do we owe this visit?" the tough Commissioner Reagan persona took over as Frank sat up and studied his two children's tight expressions before narrowing in on his son who had been charged with staying off the grid and evidently had little success in doing that considering he was standing in the middle of 1PP drawing all sort of attention to himself.

"I, um… well, hey, Pop," Danny glanced away and greeted his grandfather who was looking on as he tried to find a way to take the spotlight off himself. "Didn't see you were sitting there. Those sandwiches look good, got any extra?"

"Daniel," Henry frowned as his chutzpah meter went off. Luckily Erin's rant was about to take all the focus off her older brother and put it onto the situation at hand where it would stay for the conceivable future.

"Why are you interfering in my case?!" she demanded of her father with a little stomp of those now-ruined Louboutin pumps. "I thought we agreed to keep our working relationship professional! What was all that talk about the hockey teams and handshakes? Aren't we supposed to respect each other?"

"Come again?" Frank questioned, astounded at her tone completely at a loss as he looked between her and his son for answers. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, right, Dad! I don't know how you found out about it, but you obviously didn't think I could handle this on my own, so you sent Danny in the be the fixer! Well, you were wrong! And for your information, I don't need your help if I don't ask for it!"

"Erin, I told you he didn't send me up to Sing Sing because of anything to do with you!" Danny insisted. "It's the Bastien thing," he explained to his puzzled father since the jig was up, anyway. "I got there and found out that her 'top' DA investigator here had gone in too hard and already wrecked any chance we had of getting anything out of the guy weeks ago," he placed the blame squarely on Anthony much to the other detective's ire. "Bastien had no idea who boffed his wife, and knowing he wouldn't get any kind of deal, wasn't interested in trying to help me figure it out either."

"Hey, I didn't even go up there for that, so it wasn't my fault if you whiffed and fell on your ass, _detective," _Anthony defended his actions as his temper was raised. "I got what I needed from him even if you couldn't!"

"And what was that?" Henry pressed as his son was left momentarily speechless by what he was hearing. "Why were you looking for Matthew Bastien's biological father?" he asked the question that the shocked Commissioner could not form on his lips.

_"Looking for him? _I'm not looking for him!" Erin asserted, having no idea what she was about to reveal. "I know _exactly _who it is! I'm trying to indict the bastard for rape in front of a grand jury, and I only have until Friday to do it!"

_"Rape?" _Frank faltered and stared back at his father as all of the blood drained out of his face. His entire life with Mary flashed in front of his eyes in a single second—the good times, the births, the deaths and every bit of love in between them. Immense guilt swept over him as he realized that Henry had been right—there could be another reason behind this, one he had never contemplated before—not in his worst thoughts. But how was it possible? When? And why had his wife never so much as mentioned another man who made her uncomfortable, except…

"THE SON OF A BITCH!" he stiffened as it all came back and made sense now, slapping him down just as hard as the news Dr. Patricelli had delivered about Jamie only a few short days before.

Suddenly he didn't need his daughter to answer that question for him anymore.

"IT'S THAT GODDAMN WILLIAM MILNER, THE DOCTOR FROM PINEHURST, ISN'T IT?" he thundered in such a fashion while remembering the name of that specialist with the cold eyes who had treated his wife just once right before the pregnancy as Erin, Danny, and everyone else was taken aback by the customarily reserved Commissioner's unexpected level of vitriol.

"ANSWER ME! IT'S HIM, RIGHT? I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!"

"Sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Henry whispered as he looked around the room at the stunned faces even as his granddaughter and her normally vociferous partner remained silent trying to figure out what the hell had just set her father off like that. "I knew it wasn't your fault, sweetheart," he offered in prayer to his beloved daughter-in-law, Mary, as the rest of the Reagan family began to cope with the aftermath of something that had happened to her without their knowledge more than thirty years before.

* * *

_Wow, so that was more than Frank, Henry, or anyone else, was expecting, right? Poor Mary, and poor Jamie when he finally learns of these circumstances. Next, the present Reagan family members begin to absorb the news and realize the consequences while outside pressure ups the timetable and has a father scrambling for the right way to break the news to his son before it hits the five o'clock news, but will he get there in time?_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"DAD! SERIOUSLY! How did you know his name?"

Erin's hanging question followed Frank as he turned away and retreated to the safety of his window, unable to speak or face his children with the truth as he tried to come to grips with it. How could he have doubted Mary like that when it was his fault all along for failing to protect her?

"We're going for a secret indictment on Milner under the grand jury," his daughter continued. "No one else should know about this!"

"Dad?" she tried again before switching to Henry who was no help either at first. "GRANDPA!"

"Erin," Anthony started, further removed from the emotions in the room and recognizing that they had somehow stumbled into a hornet's nest of something very personal given the Commissioner's reaction. "I think this is like a whole zip code above my pay grade," he offered, feeling uncomfortable being present in the middle of the blue-blooded clan at the moment.

"It's a family thing. Maybe I should just wait outside."

"Yeah, you should definitely do that," Danny gritted, still coming up to speed with whatever was happening, but sensing from the general vibe it was something terrible and in no way did he want that shared with anyone not named Reagan at this point.

"Family thing?" Erin spun back to her father who had yet to make another comment after his initial outburst, but whose shoulders sagged in confirmation at those words. "What does he mean by that? What's going on here?" she demanded, blinders fully evident as her mind refused to follow the awful trail of breadcrumbs that were being laid out.

"Detective Abetemarco, I believe you're right," Abigail Baker interjected as she sought to clear the room for what she knew was going to be a very painful summit between the elder Reagans and the Commissioner's two oldest children. "If you'll come this way."

"NO!" Erin insisted, still feeling territorial after the numerous fights with her father over the past few weeks and not done with her defensive mode as she turned on his assistant. "She knows too, doesn't she? Then Anthony stays! This is the DA's case! You have no business interfering!"

"Sweetheart," Henry finally interrupted as he tried to run interference with tensions running as high as they were. "Your father does need to do this… trust me; it's important. We have to know the details," he begged and looked nervously at Danny, thinking how badly his volatile grandson might react to the news as well. They were definitely going to be walking a tightrope here as this Milner would be lucky to see the dawn of the next day once his actions were known given the tempers of the Reagan men in the room, himself included. "If this man did what we believe, then he needs to pay for it. Start at the beginning."

"Erin, we got nothing else on this guy, so maybe they have somethin' we can use," Anthony tried to reason, hoping she would give in and open up before he continued on without her permission, anyway. "So, six weeks ago, Maureen Saunders, that pushy investigative reporter at New York 1, came to us with a file as thick as two short stacks on this guy. Said she had proof he had been sexually assaulting women patients for decades. Wanted him put away and a guaranteed exclusive on the story. Only thing is after looking into it, we know the bastard did it, but we got no witnesses, and the statue of limitations has run out for everything but first degree. Most everything she could find happened twenty years or more ago, but she's threatening to turn on us and do some kinda exposé Friday on how we didn't do our jobs if this don't work."

_"Statute," _Erin softened just a hair and corrected on autopilot with a heavy sigh for what felt like the thousandth time in their relationship. "It's statute of limitations."

"That's what I said, ain't it?" he argued back again in his usual way. "Anyway, the DA kicked it down to Erin, and she's gonna take the hit if we can't pull it off."

"What proof does she have?" Frank finally muttered evenly without turning around.

"Maureen Saunders' mother died last year of triple negative breast cancer, so she had some screening done herself," Erin finally conceded and began to explain. "She planned to do a story on all those genetic test sites popping up that promise to tell you everything about your ancestry and health traits to see if they really lived up to the hype, especially the ones promoting cancer detection. So, she submitted her own samples to five of the top ones to compare, only she found out more than she bargained for… turns out her father wasn't who she thought it was."

"Yeah, imagine getting' _that _kinda news," Anthony unknowingly added with no idea he had driven a dagger further into Frank Reagan's heart and that same devastating information was about to be shared here. "Her old man denied it, and her mom was already gone. I'm telling you, this broad is like some kinda pit bull once she latches on to something, so she was determined to get to the bottom of it. She clicked on one of those leafs or links, or whatever the hell they are and came across two other women in the city that supposedly shared the same paternal DNA."

"She may be a pit bull, but she's also brilliant," Erin corrected with admiration, even if she did not personally like this Saunders woman's methods, before listing some very familiar traits. "Top of her class at Stanford, doubled in law and journalism. Lead investigative reporter at a major metropolitan news station at only twenty-five. She's probably a better detective than anyone you have here in the NYPD."

"Yeah, right," Danny sniped, taking personal umbrage at that comment. "Well, maybe a few of us," he managed a dig at his DA counterpart.

"Watch it," Anthony growled back, but kept it clean considering they were currently standing in the big office at 1PP and the Commissioner seemed less than amused.

"Maureen managed to get in contact with the two others to compare notes. One was no help because her parents were killed in a car accident when she was only a few months old, and she was raised by a foster family. The other is named Vivian Reaves. Her mother is still alive, but she's ultra-religious and rejects the science. She claims she was never unfaithful to her husband and refused to cooperate."

"But they shared something… or _someone _in common," Danny assumed. "And this Saunders managed to figure out who it was, even after all those years."

"Her mother had the same OCD traits and kept detailed diaries of everything she did. They both visited the same doctor in Pinehurst the month before they got pregnant," Erin confirmed. "She found him, dug through his trash, got DNA and ran it herself to confirm."

"So, he's just like that fertility doctor, McCandless, that Baez and I took down a couple of months ago," her brother countered and proceeded to preen his own feathers. "Called himself the 'Baby Magician' or something like that and used his own juice in the petri dish for the IVF. Fathered a couple of dozen or more kids that way. Had the stones to throw himself picnics with the happy, desperate parents who never asked questions when little Johnny or Suzy didn't come out looking like daddy. Sick son of a bitch, but it happens," he shrugged, not finding anything remarkable about the case now.

"No, this is different," Erin insisted. "Milner isn't a fertility doctor… well, not really. He's a reproductive specialist, but women were only referred to him for advanced testing. He didn't actually do any of the fertility work himself."

"Except in some of these cases he obviously did _all _the work," Anthony noted crassly as that comment was finally enough to turn Frank Reagan around with fire in his eyes and bring him directly back into the conversation.

"And Matthew Bastien?" he demanded. "If you had all this, why was his DNA the only hit in our system?"

"Maybe because the great NYPD doesn't share its databases with the DA's office?" Erin bristled as that had been a recent bone of contention between the two with Frank having come out on top again.

"Erin, this is not the time for that," Henry continued to try to mediate, knowing now that his son would be forced to reveal their connection to this situation at any moment.

"She came to us_. __We _were investigating this, not you! We ran Maureen's DNA against _our _files, and his name popped up. Anthony went for the interview and found out his mother, Ella Bastien, had visited a free clinic where Milner volunteered hours, but since her husband decided to run her over, it was just more circumstantial evidence we couldn't use. There was a suspicious fire there last year, and all their records were destroyed, anyway. Matthew was our only hope to get him for first degree anything because it's been less than five years since he was conceived, but that's up Friday. All Milner has to do is claim the sex with these women was consensual, and no one can prove otherwise. Like Anthony said, there are no witnesses to dispute it. I struck out with the judge today when I requested his patient files be released so we could do more testing and interviews but that was denied. As of right now, the case against him is in the toilet, and my job is going with it, so if you know anything…" she trailed off and challenged her father directly, having no idea what she was asking for. "I mean, obviously you do, or we wouldn't be here! We shared, now it's your turn! What are you looking at him for?"

"Yeah, c'mon, Dad," Danny urged, also still in the dark as to why his father had suspiciously remained mostly mute through this after his outburst. "What's this all about?"

"Pop," Frank finally broke as he knew the time was up and looked to his own for some sort of guidance. "I… I just can't say it," he admitted in a barely audible, rough rasp.

"Erin, Daniel," Henry searched for some way to start a conversation that would end with them knowing that this man had assaulted their mother in this same manner and their youngest brother shared more with Maureen Saunders than a similar elite academic record. "Those patient files," he started gently, although the tone of their father's voice already had them on edge. "Your mother's name would be listed on one of them," he revealed in a final shock that sent their blood running cold.

"WHAT?!" Erin gasped at both men, never expecting them to reveal anything of the sort, and she felt the breath leave her body as she collapsed on the couch.

"BUT HOW?… How would you know that? AND WHY?!"

"You said this was an old case!" Danny huffed, as he too felt lightheaded, but stubbornly refused to go down without a fight. "Not that it was about Mom!" he railed back, remaining upright for just another few seconds. "And why would she have gone to see him, anyway?… OH GOD!" he added after the final ball dropped, just as he eventually did next to his sister. His sharp detective brain went into overdrive and suddenly realized all of this wasn't just about Mary or what might have happened back when, but a brother he had recently admitted to his grandfather was not like them… one he had yet to make amends with because of that and perhaps never would now.

"IT'S JAMIE, RIGHT?! The goddamn blood tests we did this week when he got hurt! Because I…" he trailed off in sudden guilt over that hostage call as his own role in this sorted mess was exposed. "That's how you knew! You said there was a hit on Matthew Bastien's paternal profile that raised questions, but nothing about this!"

"Yes, because I didn't know. I thought your mother…" Frank uttered, and that was all he managed for a long time as the anger he'd held for Mary turned into grief, and he returned to his desk to put his head in his hands, showing more emotion than that typically stiff-upper-lipped mustache had ever managed in front of anyone before in this office. "God help me, I'm so sorry… I never thought it would turn into this."

"How could you send me out looking for this bastard, and not tell me?!" his oldest son continued to berate without imagining his mother's fidelity had even been in question.

"Jamie?" Erin cried as she tried to play catch up. "You mean he's…"

"He's your brother, as much as he's ever been," Henry assured, openly stressing that point to everyone. "You have to remember that."

"But he's not my biological son," Frank confirmed, his heartbreak over that reality further evident on top of his guilt over ever doubting his wife. "The typing they did that night… when you told Dr. Patricelli that Mom and Jamie were both AB… an O like me can't father another that way. Elaine put it together and came to me in private."

"So, you knew since _Sunday_, and didn't tell us? This is because of me?" his daughter continued as the tears started to roll and guilt began to sink in at being an instrument in bringing this ugly secret to life, not to mention virtually abandoning her little brother at the hospital for most of the past week as this case had consumed nearly every waking moment. All that and through some cruel twist of fate she still had been unable to bring Milner to any justice—now that was personal on so many levels.

"I can't believe this is happening! Have you told him yet? Is he okay?"

"No, I've been waiting for… there just hasn't been…" Frank wavered before admitting shamefully. "I haven't been able to find the words yet."

"So, that means this Milner guy, he did _that _to Mom too, right?!" Danny refocused as he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud either and the initial shock quickly turned to anger before he looked for a place to direct it. "And she never knew? How is that even possible?"

"We went to see him before Jamie was conceived," his father explained while leaving out most of the more hurtful details regarding that period which had only been revealed to Henry. "We were trying for a little while to have another baby, and it wasn't working. Your mom's regular doctor sent her for some kind of test at the hospital. Milner worked there. The first time we both met him in his office, the second time was at St. Vic's for the procedure and she went in alone. The nurse came out afterward and said they had given your mom a mild sedative, but that everything was fine. I stayed in the waiting room while he… I DIDN'T KNOW!" he defended, growing more distraught while imagining what had been done to his incapacitated wife in those moments. "Your mother was pregnant soon after, and we never knew anything like this had happened!"

"Until now," Henry concluded sadly, "And there's still one of us who doesn't."

"Dear, God," Abigail muttered, unable to stay staunchly professional at the moment. "And there's nothing else you can do to indict this man?" she questioned a still-stunned Erin and her likewise uncharacteristically speechless partner.

"It's the same thing we had before," Anthony thought about it for a while and shook his head when he finally spoke. "The guy's like some kind of freakin' Houdini when it comes to getting' out from under this. No one can testify it wasn't consensual… not that I ever would think that about Mrs. Reagan!" he assured as mortally offended stares hit him like lasers from every single angle of the room.

"MY MOTHER WOULD NEVER!" Danny started to defend before he realized that his father could not have possibly connected the dots with the so-called doctor before this. "But you didn't know that, didn't you?" he challenged. "And you actually thought Mom cheated on you! That's why you looked like hell all week! How could you?"

"Your father didn't know what to think," Henry stepped in and cut his emotional grandson off. "He's been doing his best to try to figure this out, that's why he brought you in to help. If it had been Linda and one of your boys, tell me it wouldn't have been the same for you! There's no way he could have imagined this! No one would!"

"Okay, maybe for like a half a second," Danny paused and acknowledged before reacting as Henry feared. "But you don't have to worry about indicting him, Erin, BECAUSE THE SON OF A BITCH IS TOAST!" he declared and jumped to his feet, fully committed to carrying through on that threat. "Just tell me where I can find him!"

"Sit down, Daniel," his grandfather continued to try and defuse that familiar temper. "You do realize what you just said out loud in front of a room full of detectives, a prosecutor, and two NYPD Police Commissioners?!"

"Anyone here that wouldn't help me get rid of the body, raise your hand!" the frustrated son growled with a challenging glare around the room before continuing when there were no takers. "Besides, didn't you hear him, ADA Reagan? You _have _a witness now!"

"Even if the Commissioner testified, he wasn't in the room so can't refute it beyond a reasonable doubt either. I'm so sorry, sir," Abigail apologized, knowing that reasoning just added to his remorse over the matter.

"She's right," Erin acknowledged. "It's too big a gamble for no gain. Even if we got an indictment, a trial judge would never allow in evidence of prior bad acts from that long ago that couldn't be substantiated, anyway."

"So, what? Are you just going to give up? Stop trying to follow all the rules! Sometimes you're just as bad as the kid!" Danny paused, instantly regretting that comparison given the circumstances.

"And that might open up another can of worms, especially with a reporter in the mix," Henry inserted as he had the knowledge they did not about their parent's so-called rough patch. A savvy defense attorney, as this Milner would no doubt hire, would surely ask about the state of the Reagan's marriage at that point in time and use it against them. The last thing his son or anyone else needed was for that to come out in open court and throw more shade on Mary.

"Trust me, somehow Maureen Saunders would know and run the fact that she's Jamie's half-sister up the flagpole the very second she found out. Imagine what that would do to him," Erin worried with more than a little hint of jealousy of her own evident now at the thought of sharing her little brother with that woman in any such way. "All we would be doing is announcing to the world what happened to Mom and Jamie," she argued back. "No one knows about him now… and he can keep it that way if he wants. He's getting married soon, and he doesn't deserve this!"

"Listen, just buy some time and put Dad on the stand, anyway!" Danny insisted stubbornly, the ends justifying the means in his mind. There was no way Milner was going to get away with this no matter what they had to do. "You said the grand jury is secret. They'll true bill this guy in a New York minute if the PC says so! Anyone else would use that to get an indictment! Then you can find something else to charge him with."

"It doesn't work that way, Danny!" his sister shot back.

"It does where I come from, Erin!" he returned.

"And look where _that _got us!" she sniped. "The rules never apply to you, do they? None of this would be happening if you hadn't jumped into Jamie's scene in the first place! Why don't you consider his feelings for once? Do you really want to put him through the press ringer for a ten percent shot at a six-month sentence? Because I guarantee you best case scenario it gets knocked all the way down to a sexual misconduct charge and Milner would be out in 90 days or less with good behavior, anyway!"

"It's better than nothing!" he fumed back. "The bastard's still doing this, isn't he? He had another kid just a few years ago. Someone has to stop him!"

"It's not better for Jamie! We can't do that to him! There's barely enough right now to get Milner's license yanked if I take it to the medical ethics board, but not criminally. If someone else could corroborate it, then maybe, but Dad just said there wasn't anyone!"

"No one else was in the room at the time," Frank acknowledged as he wracked his brain for anything that might help. "It was a simple test that only required Milner, the nurse, and an x-ray tech to be present. I saw the tech walk out a few minutes before the nurse came to speak to me. I didn't think anything of it."

"Wait, about that," Anthony hesitated before pressing a little further. "The nurse… she just left your wife alone with him, right?"

"Yes, she came out and said Mary was taking a little longer than normal to wake up, but not to worry…" Frank latched onto that observation and looked up. "And then she never went back in the room! She stood at the desk for the next ten minutes!"

"Because she knew what was happening!" Henry surmised as he leaned forward, his own ire building now that it felt like they were on to something. "That makes her a damn accessory, doesn't it?"

"Maybe, but it still doesn't really help," Erin lamented. "We checked his employment records. He moved around a lot… at least eight different hospitals and clinics. There were no names in common."

"None in common, but Erin, most of those places only gave us first and last. We never checked socials!" Anthony remembered. "She coulda been married or used a middle initial or somethin'… it's worth another look!" he insisted. "What are the odds he found more than one stone-cold broad like that who would keep her mouth shut all these years? Dollars to donuts we get a hit! If he kept the same one for the Bastien case, and we can get her to roll by telling her there's a witness, then we still gotta shot at him! We have to hit this first thing in the morning!"

"Okay, but we need to keep the Reagan name out of it. I'd have to recuse myself if anyone found out. Maureen's gotta have someone on the payroll inside the court… she's always one step ahead of us."

"What if you find this nurse and she calls your bluff?" Danny demanded. "You don't have anything more on her than him. Erin, you're running out of time! She has to pay for what she did too! You gotta be prepared to go all in!"

"Not without Jamie's permission," Frank interrupted and shook his head, thinking about how hurt his youngest son was going to be to find out all this had been decided without him. "As much as I want this man to pay, this isn't right. Whatever happens, it's going to affect your brother the most, so he needs to at least be part of the conversation. I should have spoken to him sooner, but I wanted some answers first. I was almost prepared to explain an affair to him… but not this," he admitted. "This is much worse."

"You seriously think he won't want Erin to go after the people that did this to _our _mother?" Danny spat back incredulously as something that would have him ready to disown any of them.

"What the hell kind of Reagan would that make him then?"

"Daniel, that's not fair," Henry warned. "And I never want to hear you say that again! Jamie is every bit a Reagan as you are, and that's coming from me, one of the originals!"

"I think your brother is going to need some time to process it like I do. This is… it's just incredibly hard," Frank admitted in a complete understatement as his own heart was still in turmoil. "I know you feel that way too, but the two of you have some perspective now. I can't explain the emotions I've had… some of them were irrational. I was so angry with her at first and wasn't thinking straight. It's not fair to expect any less of him."

"So, what are you going to do, Francis?" Henry wondered, hoping that his son would make the right move in the direction of Kings County Hospital immediately after placing a call to Eddie to ask her to meet them there.

"Tomorrow morning, Pop," Frank answered, ducking that dreaded conversation for just a few more hours. "I promise I'll go there first thing, and I won't leave this time until we've talked, but I can't yet… I have to get my head on straight first beforehand. The rest of you, see if you can find this woman, but no one makes a move until then."

After a few more hours of strategizing at 1PP, it was with a heavy heart that Henry sat alone in the backseat of the Commissioner's SUV and watched as his son walked down to that familiar row of cemetery stones in the fading evening light. Frank Reagan stood there alone for a minute only to fall down on one knee in sorrow in front of his beloved Mary and beg for forgiveness and strength over what happened in the past and for what he was about to do.

* * *

_Well, I doubt poor Frank will be getting much sleep again after this, but maybe he should have made that trip tonight, anyway. Unbeknownst to him, someone else has already cracked the patient list code and is planning on using that information to press Erin's hand in any way possible, including using a vulnerable brother to act as a message board. Just how will Jamie find out about what is really going on?_


	10. Chapter 10

_SURPRISE! Bonus Day! You guys have been so great with the reviews and such I decided to keep these next two related chapters together this week to keep the story rolling on_.

* * *

Chapter 10

"Hey lambchop, um, it's like… geez, what's with the oh-dawn-hundred call?" Eddie worried the next morning as she answered her phone after a glance at the alarm clock showed it to be before six and nearly time for her to get up and ready for first shift. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered, admittedly feeling a little lonely, thoroughly bored with his confinement, mixed up in his sleep patterns, and more than ready leave Kings County behind. "Just really missing you and counting down the hours until we're both at home. The vampires were just in and drained what felt like another quart, or it could have been today. Pretty sick of being a pin cushion here," he complained. "The doc said all the tests came back good again last night, so I don't understand why she had them do more. It's ridiculous. There's no reason they couldn't let me go this morning except for that stupid repeat CT scan I'm scheduled for after lunch. Seriously, this is a waste of time. I feel fine," he reiterated.

"I know, but it's almost over," she encouraged. "And better safe than sorry, right? Dr. Patricelli just wanted to make sure you're healing, and you're going to have to take it easy on the couch here for at least the next week, anyway. I managed to talk Maya into switching with Peterson and his partner, so we're working first today. That way I'll be able to pick you up in the morning and have you all to myself the rest of the weekend. You might be tired of it, but I'm looking forward to some downtime with you in bed. They even have a 48-hour _Jaws _and Shark Week marathon starting tomorrow night," she encouraged, knowing that was one of his all-time favorites and a go-to method of destressing now that his beloved Jets football season was over for another year. "We could binge on sushi and snuggle in bed."

"Sounds good," he sighed, although coming off as rather unenthusiastic about her offer.

"Aw, c'mon… what's really bugging you? Is it because your Dad hasn't been there? Pop says he hasn't been feeling well all week. The last thing he'd want to do is make you sick."

"I know, it's just that Gramps didn't come yesterday either," Jamie lamented as he was definitely feeling a little abandoned by the family, a state which was about to intensify even with the arrival of an unexpected visitor or two. "He went to 1PP to make sure the Commissioner had lunch and then didn't even call after… no one did."

"Sweetie, I think it's just because everyone understands there's someone else looking out for you now, so they don't want to intrude. I'm there every day after shift until they make me leave."

"Yeah, I know; you're probably right," he admitted ruefully, realizing she was sacrificing more than her fair share to keep him company. "I'm sure Erin's still focused on her case and Danny…" he trailed off, not really expecting that his older brother would have come anyway until their differences were settled. "I heard from Chief Bitner. Detective Reagan dropped his appeal, so it seems like he's accepted the suspension."

"Good. Then your brother did his part, so now it's your turn… just apologize for giving it to him in the first place already; you know it was out of line. The two of you need to make up and drop the rest of it," Eddie frowned as she sat up and pulled the covers off, determined to fix this sibling impasse now even if it had to be done long-distance. "You don't want to have another repeat of last week's dinner, do you? So why not send a text and invite him over to watch the movies with us on Saturday?"

"You mean in our bed?" he quipped involuntarily, back to bantering in their usual way.

"Shut up, on the couch, jerk," she returned, knowing full well he was trying to humor her and duck away from this conversation once more. "Start it with 'I'm sorry, let's talk,'" she directed with emphasis. "Bikini babes, gore and monster sharks… you guys will be best buds again in no time. I'll even go out and pick up some black diamond steaks from Rico's so the two of you can go full-on carnivore. Just no drinking for you until the meds are done, got it, Jameson?"

"Got it," he conceded, as a week of near isolation from the rest of the family had finally brought him back to his senses.

"Promise?"

"I promise, okay? I'll send the text as soon as I get off the phone with you," he vowed, knowing she was right and would no doubt follow up on it until he gave in, anyway. "You win. Satisfied?"

"You know it. So, you're going be all right by yourself until later? I'll check in at lunch, but I gotta get going now, or I'll be late for roll call, and you know how much my by-the-book CO hates that. I can't afford to get another writeup when you come back."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Stay safe out there Edit Janko-soon-to-be-Reagan," he trailed off, and the two said the rest of their goodbyes before hanging up as he began to contemplate the best approach to making good on that pledge seeking amends with a likewise stubborn brother. Taking a cue from his fiancée's suggestion, he decided to keep it simple, offer an apology, and appeal to two of Danny's strongest motivations: food and alcohol—all composed in 35 characters or less.

_SRY 4B4. WAN2TLK? RICO'S 4DNR SAT. BYOB._

"There," Jamie huffed with courage as he hit the send button and then waited with bated breath for a reply that was agonizingly not forthcoming from a brother whose phone was almost always glued to his side. "Huh," he frowned in disappointment after several more minutes went by while trying to rationalize the letdown.

"He's probably just busy sleeping in or something," he sighed while that sad, guilty feeling for being on the outs with one of his family members crept in a little tighter as the time passed. "I guess he'll get back to me later… or maybe not ever."

"Mr. Reagan?" one of the nurse's soft voices interrupted his depressing thoughts. "There's been a request from downstairs to allow your sister up early. I know it's well before normal visiting hours, but she sounds insistent, and since you're already awake and rounds are done…"

"No, that's okay!" Jamie perked up and asserted as he sat up straighter, suddenly grateful for Erin's sometimes over-the-top pushy personality, especially given what was purported to be the increased security on this wing and therefore greater intolerance of exceptions.

"She's an ADA, and there's been this big case all week, so she probably only has a few minutes before work," he explained. "I want to see her."

"Then I'll tell them to let her up," the friendly nurse smiled as she went back to the desk and made the confirmation before moving further down to the end of the hall to attend another patient whose call button had just gone off. Jamie waited anxiously for Erin to rush in, imagining she was probably already dressed for court with mere minutes to spare for a sibling hug and a little conversation.

What he wasn't expecting was the twenty-something, oddly familiar-looking young woman with long, light brown hair who hastily turned the corner and entered his room before kicking the door closed.

"HEY!" he challenged, totally unprepared for this intrusion even as he quickly recognized Maureen Saunders as her reporter persona and errantly assumed her appearance here was simply a prying media attack given his last name. "Get out, or I'll call security!"

"No need," Saunders coolly assured as she took an unbearably long, uncomfortable, two full seconds to study his face in great detail—those same hazel eyes that greeted her in the mirror every morning were reflecting back anger at the moment, not that she blamed him, of course, having experienced a similar reaction herself several months earlier and every single day since. Milner was going to pay for that pain no matter how hard she had to push everyone else, she vowed. Given her own immeasurable heartache at discovering that a much-loved father was not exactly who she believed him to be—an event that occurred immediately following her mother's death—she had resolved before coming here today not to be the one who dispensed such news to another, at least not directly. That sentiment wasn't going to stop her from playing every card in the deck she had been given to make sure someone else had to though.

"I'm only here to deliver a message to your sister."

"My _sister?" _Jamie snapped at her unbelievable gall. "That's rich, considering you just lied by impersonating her to get up here! How'd you slip that past the desk? I could press charges!"

"Oh, you really don't want to challenge me on that one," Saunders replied cryptically but refrained once again from going into more detail at the moment, knowing that Erin or someone else in the Reagan clan would soon be hard pressed into doing so. A shocking and familiar last name had surfaced after successful use of her extensive network of contacts to uncover those sought-after patient files. A name that had her wondering now if a particular ADA was purposefully dragging her heels while pursuing the Milner indictment in an attempt to cover over an unflattering family secret, or skeleton in the hospital, as it were. As Frank had feared, once they had Mary's name, it didn't take long to do the math.

"So, you know who I am then?" she questioned tenaciously and tested that theory.

"Yeah, you're that reporter from New York 1, Maureen Saunders," Jamie answered correctly but didn't react to her presence in any other way that would suggest he knew of their true connection. "Now, why are you really here?" he demanded.

Once again, she paused for a long while to read him, staring directly into those honestly perplexed eyes until she was convinced that he was still in the dark.

"I told you, I have a message for your sister. Here I took this yesterday," she produced a close-up still photo for proof—one gleaned from the footage shot at the courthouse the day before. It showed Erin and Danny arguing with Anthony in the background—a moment that caught Jamie's focus for an entirely different reason as it clearly revealed a brother who was supposed to be suspended dressed in his usual detective ware down to the pin on his lapel and the gold shield on his waist.

"Wait, this was yesterday?" he puzzled for a moment as that betrayal sank in.

"Just tell ADA Reagan I have everything needed edited and ready to go on the five o'clock newscast tomorrow. One word from me and that segment will air and show everyone exactly why she failed to do her job… how she was willing to let Dr. William Milner, a known rapist, walk," Saunders' voice raised by an octave at the end showing clear intent to do just that.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you're trying to prove by coming here, or who this Milner guy is or what he did to you, but my sister would _never _let someone like that off for _any _reason if she could help it!" he insisted, taken back by the venom in her voice and incorrectly assuming she had been a direct victim of this so-called doctor's assault.

"Are you so sure?" she countered as her anger grew and the ugly secret between them was temptingly dangling there to be used to refute that argument. Once again though, she decided against using it as a vindictive weapon before continuing. "Because it doesn't look that way to me! Trust me, if you ask her about that, you're gonna be surprised at her answer! JUST TELL HER I'LL BURY HER CAREER IF MILNER DOESN'T PAY FOR WHAT HE DID!"

"LADY, NO ONE THREATENS MY FAMILY LIKE THAT AND GETS AWAY WITH IT! Now out! Or I'll call security, and have _you _arrested for harassment! Let's see what that does to _your _career!" Jamie barked back as the Reagan code of conduct had always allowed members to talk smack about one another amid interpersonal squabbles but required an immediate Defcon 1 response if anyone from the outside tried to do the same.

"No need, I'm going," Saunders backed down and softened, confident that she had raised his ire enough to ensure that a call to find out what this was all about would be immediately placed after she left.

"It was good to meet you, Jameson. I'm sure we'll talk again soon," she added cheekily over her shoulder with more familiarity than a stranger should have the right to express before opening the door and hurrying down the hall. Jamie was left fuming at this sudden, unanticipated intrusion in what had started off as an unbelievingly dull day but would end with him questioning everything that he ever thought he knew about himself and his family.

"Jesus, what was up with that?" he seethed as he watched her disappear before refocusing on that photo left lying next to his leg on the bed. "And what the hell is this?" he wondered after picking it up to study the image of his siblings arguing, once again noting with frustration that Danny's suspension seemed to be on paper only. "Figures," he grated while taking out his phone to document the evidence, correctly presuming his brother had been allowed to skate around the regulations by the Commissioner—working off the books once again to help Erin with whatever this Saunders woman was ranting about, or in the name of family peace, or… the reason honestly didn't matter to him anymore as he angrily composed a brief message to both and texted them together along with the attachment.

_NVM NSRY. DNR OFF. SCRW U. BTW ERN, M SAUNDERS WH. SS SCRW U2._

"Screw everything!" he muttered before hitting send and making up his mind to leave, sick of the week's segregation, frustrated up to the gills with being confined in the hospital and whatever it was that had been going on behind his back. An absentee father, overcompensating grandfather and two siblings who had gone further MIA just dovetailed into this being some sort of widespread family conspiracy.

"I'm out of here!" he determined and began the process of detaching himself from all of the monitors, setting off alarms and alerting the staff to his intentions before pulling out the fresh set of clothes Eddie had brought for him the previous evening and starting to get dressed.

Throughout this entire confrontation with Maureen Saunders and the aftermath, Jamie had been acutely unaware that his heartbroken father was indeed nearby, down on the street level, sitting in his vehicle in front of the hospital for the last twenty minutes. Frank had been struggling to compose himself while trying to summon the courage to go upstairs and deliver some of the hardest news he'd ever had to break in this lifetime.

A near-hysterical phone call from Erin was about the disrupt that standstill and had the Commissioner scrambling to look up just in time to see the aforementioned woman reporter exiting the building via the front door. The chilling sight left no doubt in his mind that his son had already been informed of their paternal disconnection in the cruelest possible way by a virtual stranger who the rest of the family now knew shared more genetically in common with Jamie than Frank Reagan ever had himself.

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed and threw the car door open, sending his detail members scrambling to keep up with their boss and secure the way as he hurried into the hospital and over to the closest public elevator without regard for protocol. He frantically punched in the number for Jamie's floor, all the while praying that he wasn't too late to make this right with the boy he had always loved fiercely as his own and would continue to do so for the rest of his life. His only hope was that his son would eventually feel the same way about his father again.

* * *

_Uh-oh, Frank's little assumption about what Jamie already knows is not going to make this conversation any easier as Murphy's Law firmly kicks in and whatever could go wrong, will go wrong._


	11. Chapter 11

_Happy BB Friday! Jamko, babies, AND puppies given the spoilers for tonight's epi! Bestill my heart. Looking forward to a little fluff! Need it after today's chapter!_

* * *

Chapter 11

"Jamie, stop! Where do you think you're going?" a father's near-breathless voice questioned from the doorway as Frank witnessed his son's back visibly stiffen in response.

_"Now _he shows up," Jamie gritted under his breath with a heavy sigh and refused to turn around from his seat on the far side of the bed, although momentarily abandoning an attempt to stretch down against his sore left-sided ribs and tie the goddamn shoelace that remained elusively just out of reach.

"Home," he finally answered bitterly, shoving his foot in the sneaker with the lace tucked to the side instead and having no idea when all was said in done in the next five minutes that his apartment, or the family house in Bay Ridge for the matter, would be two of the last places he would decide to seek refuge. "I'm going home."

"We have to talk first," Frank insisted, unnerved at the idea of his youngest leaving the relative safety of the hospital early against medical advice, especially given his present, presumed state.

"About what?" Jamie demanded evenly as he got to his feet, still consumed by his own thoughts over the fallout from the hostage situation, and without turning to see just how badly shaken his father looked. He rummaged around in the closet to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything before realizing Eddie hadn't brought his wallet back yet and he didn't have any money on hand to pay for cab fare. Undeterred, with ride apps available on his phone, anyway, he pulled out his coat, thinking all the while that his father was just there to try and smooth over this kerfuffle with Danny, likely already having been informed of his reaction to that picture by a well-intentioned sister. Even so, the timing of this visit was somewhat suspicious, so soon after that text and early in the morning before posted visiting hours after nearly a week of non-contact.

"That… the woman that was just here," Frank stammered, unable to get a good read on his son without seeing his face. "I… I had no idea she would bring this to you first!"

"Obviously," Jamie replied coldly on a completely different wavelength while gingerly putting his left arm in the jacket sleeve before drawing it the rest of the way on, still assuming they were talking about Danny's role in that picture which had been crumpled and thrown down to the bottom of the bed.

"SHE HAD NO RIGHT!" Frank insisted as more than a little of his own anger showed through.

"Seriously?" Jamie finally wheeled around at that tone, shocked at first to see the utter gravity of his father's expression given what he thought was just another nasty, but not unprecedented, tiff with his older brother—ultimately attributing that look to the fact that his dad had been purportedly ill all week.

"MAYBE SHE HAD EVERY RIGHT! And how could you tell who she was or why she was here? Were you watching?" he barked back. "Am I under surveillance? Don't give me that line about the Commissioner knowing everything! You're the one that's been hiding something all week with no intention of letting me find out, right?"

"That's not true!" Frank insisted, stung by that comment but still clueless over the fact that he and his son were engaged in two starkly separate exchanges at the moment even though Jamie's reaction wasn't quite on par with what he expected. "You have to believe me, I always intended to have this conversation… just not here, or like this! I wanted you to be well and have some answers for you first!"

"Answers? That's what you were looking for? Hey, me too! So, let's start with why you sent Detective Reagan out on a job when he's supposed to be suspended or wasn't that going to be part of the conversation?"

_"That's _what you want to ask me about?" it was Frank's turn to be confused, hurt, and thrown off kilter. Certainly, given the sensitivities of the topic he was prepared to discuss, Danny's involvement ranked well below almost everything else he could imagine. "I thought you'd be more concerned about your mother and what that man did to her!" he defended, his anger still triggered by the thought of what Milner had gotten away with so long ago.

"MOM?" Jamie stared back at his father as if he had just grown two heads. "Just what the hell are YOU talking about? What does any of this have to do with her?" he demanded as his eyes narrowed and the two realized neither had any idea of what they were genuinely arguing over.

"Maureen Saunders," Frank backtracked as his voice lowered and he grasped the painful fact that they were going to have to start at the beginning anyway after an unfortunate contentious start. "What did she tell you?"

"Dad, what's going on?" Jamie likewise stood down and wondered for a brief second if perhaps this was all a dream and he had been overmedicated at some point. Nothing that had happened since he'd hung up the phone with Eddie was making any sense.

"What did she tell you?" his father reiterated, and the look on his face made it clear that an answer was going to be required before they could go any further.

"She showed up pretending to be my sister and gave me that picture then said she had a message for Erin… that some doctor named William Milner was a rapist and needed to be indicted or this Saunders woman was going to air some kind of hatchet job on the DA's office tomorrow night on New York 1."

_"Pretending?" _Frank latched onto that word as it was clear now that his son had just been used as a pawn in a high stakes game and whatever it was that he had been initially upset about paled in comparison to what now needed to be revealed.

"Yeah, that's what she told the desk to get up here," Jamie admitted, his unease growing by the second. Something was obviously terribly wrong here, and suddenly he wanted nothing to do with hearing what that was. If he could have, he would have crawled back into the bed, pulled the covers over his head and started the whole day over again without a complaint. The next comment from his father confirmed that sentiment and had his blood turn cold.

"Son, sit down. We need to talk," Frank started with his voice turning raspy as his throat closed. "This is hard to say," he confirmed those worst thoughts.

"What?" Jamie panicked and refused to move, his mind spinning through a thousand different scenarios like a Rolodex on high speed, none of which were good or fit with the limited evidence he had on hand. Eddie wasn't even at work yet, so at least the thought of this being one of "those" calls from the Police Commissioner was quickly dismissed.

"This Milner case… it's… it's become personal," Frank began with a vast understatement. "Some information's come to light. That man," he swallowed, having a difficult time ascribing the term to Milner. "It turns out that man assaulted Maureen Saunders' mother when she went to him in a professional capacity more than two decades ago, and Saunders recently discovered he's her biological father. Her mother was raped without her knowledge, that's why she's so upset," he confirmed and emphasized what would be a common point. "He's been doing it for years. Erin's had the information for the last six weeks and is trying to bring an indictment on him for another case, but the odds are not good. Saunders is using everything at her disposal, ethical or not, to press for it."

"Personal to her, or personal to _us?" _Jamie demanded, an inkling of where this was heading just now beginning to trickle into his resistant brain given the mention of his mother even though it was railing against that notion and trying to shore up a wall of denial. _This must be about his sister_, he reasoned instead. Surely this was all because his father was trying to protect Erin from an unprofessional attack and using Danny to help. Suddenly he was more than happy that his tenacious brother had been brought in to do the job he was so good at it. Screw the chain of command and his own role in it.

"Personal to you and me," Frank admitted with words and a heartbroken look that wiped away the final bit of rebuttal. "To all of us."

"What information?" Jamie circled back around to use his opponent's own words to draw it out as was so often his way.

"You said it came to light. What did?"

"Jameson…" his father tried to soften the blow.

_"WHAT _CAME TO LIGHT, DAD?!"

"Your mother," Frank nearly choked as he fought to get the words out, all the while as Jamie was shaking his head and trying just as hard not to listen to them. "There's no easy way to say this. She was a patient of Milner's too before you were born, and he... I had no idea…" he trailed off, unable to say that part of it out loud and cursing his own role in bringing on the raw disbelief he saw welling up in Jamie's eyes as the truth slowly seeped in. "I had no idea about any of this until they did those blood typing tests on us the other night when you came here. You and your mother's… they're the same, but it can't be that way between me and her. Dr. Patricelli noticed, and DNA confirmed it."

"It wasn't your Mom's fault," he added, desperate to make that assurance after a long reign of shocked silence continued, thinking that might offer his stunned youngest child a small bit of comfort as it had for his own heart.

"Let's go home, Jamie," Frank begged some more after another extended break when there was still no reply, the symbolism of taking his son back to the house in Bay Ridge from the hospital just as he and Mary had brought him into their lives together more than thirty years ago was not lost.

"We can talk more there."

"Not… her… fault," Jamie finally broke his speechlessness and repeated in a slow, shocked monotone as he tried to comprehend exactly what that meant before the dam was breached as the pain rushed in and threatened to change their once close father-son relationship forever.

"You're telling me it's not _her _fault that I'm the bastard son of a serial rapist that assaulted God-only-knows how many women, including my own mother, AND _THAT'S _SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?!" he cried, his eyes now gone more disturbingly glassy and dark as his father had ever seen them before.

"NO! That's not what I meant! And you're NOT _HIS _SON, you're _MY _SON! Jameson Reagan, don't you ever think anything different!" Frank insisted even though he'd had the exact same difficulty expressing those thoughts when all of this ugliness was first exposed. Now that he was on the other side of it though, he realized how hurtful those simple semantics really were.

"I only said that because I didn't want you to be angry with Mom like I was all week for something that she didn't do! I thought…" he paused before admitting it out loud. "I thought she cheated on me before we knew."

_"WE?!" _Jamie laser focused on that single word as the last straw while the bile-like feeling of betrayal that Frank had been experiencing rose in his own throat and threatened to choke out all reason. Everything that was happening merged together and began to blur around the edges.

"So, Mom didn't have an affair or anything, and that makes it better for you… and everyone else already knows. You ran DNA and never even bothered to say anything to me? THAT'S WHY YOU'VE BEEN STAYING AWAY? So, Danny could work the case instead?"

"NO! Jamie, please listen! I know how hard this is to hear, believe me! But it wasn't like that at all!" Frank pleaded and sensed he had just lost any hope of having the time to explain the necessary details before those irrational emotions he had experienced himself took over and left his son unable to absorb them. "We were together in my office when the evidence came together and brought it out! No one had any idea all of this was connected to you! Your sister was there to tell me to stay the hell away from the DA's investigation, and Danny didn't know why I asked him to look into anything. He thought he was working on a cold case, _my _cold case. I would have never put anyone before you that way if I knew!"

"BUT YOU DID!" his deeply emotionally wounded and inconsolable son countered. "You knew all week, and you couldn't come to me instead? I had to find out like this?" the suffocating shock was giving way to an undeniable urge to run before any of the other details came out and overwhelmed him. "God, I… I can't do this anymore!" Jamie exclaimed as the fingers from his opposite hand gripped that irritating coded hospital band around his left wrist—the one that proclaimed his name as "Reagan, Jameson H" and felt like a complete lie now. Despite using all his strength, he was unable to yank the stubborn tear-resistant material off and gave up instead, darting for the door before his father could move to block it.

"Jamie, stop! Where do you think you're going?" Frank closed with the same question he had asked in the beginning and called to the retreating figure down the hall, following as closely as his arthritic knees allowed. He realized there was no way to catch up unless by some miracle that open elevator they were headed for cooperated and shut those doors on its own before long. That hope was for naught as Jamie managed to get inside and turn around to block the rest of the entrance with a shaking hand on the close door button and no apparent interest in continuing the conversation.

"Wait! Let the doctor check you first, or, if you want, at least let me drive you home! Please, son, I'm sorry! I got this all wrong! Don't go!"

"Don't call me that!" Jamie returned angrily as his hazel eyes flashed in defiance and those were the last words between them before he punched the panel and effectively cut himself off from his father and the rest of the family. Frank stared back at the closed doors in a state of disbelief which soon only grew more desperate. Calls to the waiting protection detail officers he had ordered to remain stationed downstairs out of respect for Jamie's privacy failed to locate a fleeing Reagan once the elevator car hit the ground level. His son might have been upset, but he was also a well-trained NYPD officer and knew better than try to disappear in front of the Commissioner's handpicked staff. A stop on another floor had seen him escape out of a different entrance altogether and vanish into the city alone.

###

"What do you mean, he's _gone?" _Danny barked back as he sat in his sister's office after she relayed the facts as their father had reported them. "Jesus! Not gone, gone, right? Just…"

"Walked out and Dad doesn't know where he is!" Erin clarified with worry, already troubled by the news of Maureen Saunders' early morning threats, but ready to ditch their appointed task of locating that missing nurse to drive blindly through the city looking for her younger brother instead. "He said he tried to talk to him, but messed up, then Jamie got really upset and left the hospital without him. Damn it! He's not answering for me either!" she added after trying her younger brother's phone herself and having the call go directly to voicemail.

"Well, what the hell did he expect?" Danny griped as anyone should have seen that reaction coming and had a guard stationed at every door. "Can you blame the kid? That's why Gramps told him to take Eddie along in the first place! He should have listened!"

"You should try," Erin was clutching at straws now, much like their investigation which hinged on Anthony's ability to pull some strings with a contact in the records bureau at the New York State Department of Health to determine if any common employees followed Milner's career. "We all have to show Jamie how much we care!" she insisted.

"Erin, did you not read the text he sent just before Dad got there? I'm guessing right now he doesn't want to hear for either of us! You know how he is… we just gotta give him some time and space to cool off first. It's not like he's going to do anything stupid and head for a bridge," he tried to assure her even though the thought was a little disconcerting considering the gravity of the situation.

"How do you know that?" she argued back before growing more anxious and concerned as all the "what-ifs" started to accrue in her mind. "Jamie walked out of the hospital before he should have, didn't he? What if something happens to him out there while he's all alone? He's not supposed to be overexerting himself! The doctor said it could take eight weeks for his spleen to heal and it hasn't even been one! He could get mugged, or hit by a car, or sit on the subway and bleed to death in a dirty corner while nobody notices because of it!"

"Or he could just take a cab home," Danny tried to reel her back down.

"And then get in a fender bender and die before the ambulance got there because the seatbelt hit him in the wrong spot!" she continued on her end-of-the-world-run as his attempt to rein her in failed dramatically. "Dr. Patricelli warned him about that! What if he forgets and puts it on anyway? HE ALWAYS WEARS ONE, DANNY!" she started to hyperventilate.

"ALRIGHT!" he huffed and pulled out his phone in an effort just to appease her and try to keep at least one sibling from going off the deep end if possible. "He's never gonna answer, so I'll text. At least maybe he'll read it that way. What do you want me to say?"

"That you love him, and you'll come to get him right away, no questions asked!"

"I 'heart' you? Are you effing kidding me, Erin? That's the best you've got? I'm so not going to say it like that! He's not an underage tween out drinking his first beer with some friends!" Danny took offense to what he considered her overprotective mom approach before pausing for a moment to compose something more appropriate and in his own style.

_sry kid dis sux. jus be sfe k bro?_

"There," he sighed after hitting send and hoping the message would be received and more than just read. "At least he'll know it's from me. Now what are we doing here?" he added impatiently before using an insult gained from Richard Bastien at Sing Sing. "We gonna wait around all day while Detective Abracadabra tries to pull a rabbit out of his hat?"

"I HEARD THAT!" Anthony growled as he hurried across the hall from his office and waived a paper at them in triumph, ready to trade in kind. "And you can kiss my ass, Detective Igot Nothin' Better! What did I tell ya? HUH? Margarite Benson, aka Marge Wilson, aka Margarita Villa… yeah, I kid you not, and finally, Rita Begley now livin' on Remsen Avenue in Canarsie! We just scratched the surface and got four different names, at least as many ex-husbands, but just ONE social security number!"

"Anthony, this is great work! Go bring her in! Make sure she knows she'll need a lawyer so we can work out a plea right away and call her in front of the grand jury by tomorrow. I'll draw up the papers to show them we're serious!" Erin praised her associate even as her brother scowled over the fact that he had not come up with that idea himself. Still, that wasn't going to stop him from helping to take the bitch down who had enabled Milner to do the unspeakable to his mother and caused all this grief in his family now, even if that meant sharing a long ride to Canarsie with a certain equally loud-mouthed nemesis.

"I'm driving, you coming?" Danny proclaimed after grabbing his coat and hurrying out of the office before Anthony frowned at his boss and did the same.

###

"Hey, buddy, you coming? I'm supposed to be driving to Brooklyn Heights, right? I'm gonna get a ticket if I sit here any longer!" the annoyed Lyft driver Jamie had summoned with his app urged, hoping to move things along as he sat double parked on a side street just two blocks away from the hospital.

"Yeah, just a second," Jamie paused to read that incoming text from his brother before stepping out of the shadows of a deep doorway that had sheltered him from being spotted by a roving familiar black SUV a few minutes ago. The last three letters of that message were enough to set him off again his fragile state though.

_… be sfe k bro?_

"BRO!" Jamie snapped considering the circumstances and hurled his phone down against the pavement in an involuntary reaction that left the device shattered in numerous pieces.

"Hey, you crazy or sumthin'? They just let you off the eighth floor at Kings?" the driver shouted and then reconsidered taking this fare at all, having been on a run of rather iffy customers of late and with no idea he was looking at a member of NYPD royalty. "Screw it! It's not like you can tip me now, anyway!" he expressed a familiar sentiment and drove off, leaving Jamie stranded without any ready form of communication or method of paying for another ride.

"Screw that," he sighed before bending down to pick up what remained of a costly lesson.

"Guess there's only one place for me to go now," he decided before setting off down the alley toward a familiar location he had not visited in some time, still determined to remain out of sight.

* * *

_Needed a little light-hearted stuff with Danny and Anthony there at the end of a heavy chapter, right? Next up, Eddie gets a visit on the job from a worried father that raises some eyebrows and spends hours searching for her beloved before an unexpected message sends her in the right direction._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"So, what's been up with you lately, anyway?" Officer Maya Thomas asked with her standard bit of sassy, know-it-all attitude as she rolled her eyes over towards her shorter, blonde partner while the two were on a quiet foot patrol post a few hours into their rescheduled shift.

"Me? Nothing. Just looking to serve and protect," Eddie tried to deflect with a tight-lipped smile and an innocent little aw-shucks shrug as they walked along. She had spent the whole shift thus far happily contemplating the fact that from all earlier reports Jamie was finally doing well enough to be scheduled for discharge the following morning, which now happened to conveniently fall on the first of a three-day weekend for the pair.

Unimpressed with that answer, her suspicious counterpart continued to dig.

"Mm-hmm," Maya frowned as if she could read Eddie's mind and was not buying into any of that act. The third-year patrolwoman, who had some of her own secrets which would soon terminate their partnership, had been noticing other changes recently which seemed to confirm an earlier premise that had been floated out there and categorically denied more than once. Out of boredom, she decided to press again to see if she could trip Officer Janko up. "So, any news on Stripes?" she referred to Jamie and his exacting command style in a slightly disrespectful way as always.

"You mean Sergeant Reagan?" Eddie sounded genuinely surprised at the question and refused to fall that easily.

"Yeah. I was wondering how long these easy tours were gonna last. It's nice to stand down a little if you know what I mean. I've been enjoying the extra fifteen minutes it gives me for coffee before roll call every shift considering I don't have to whip out the iron and touch up my tie."

"Aw, c 'mon… he's not that bad," Eddie defended as per the norm. "Besides, I have no idea when he'll be back, hopefully soon. It was too bad what happened to him after that hostage call," she answered somewhat honestly since Jamie's return would largely depend on the results from his follow-up appointments.

"Uh-huh," Maya continued as they turned the corner and started down the next street. "So, what are we doing for meal? It's your pick and our time's coming up," she wondered out loud on another tact.

"How about that new 'Forget Your Dough' place on 42nd?" Eddie suggested a healthier-minded option than usual, as it had occurred to her the wedding dress she picked out would still have to fit in a few months after reminding Jamie their date had been set while munching down on that favored cheeseburger meal all in the same breath the other night.

"The place that serves everything _but _bread? You gonna order a grilled-chicken-breast-sautéed kale-roasted-sweet-potato combo now?" Maya protested before narrowing her eyes and continuing. That clue seemed to fit her preconceived idea of what might be going on behind the scenes at the 2-9 ever since the arrival of the new boss a few months before. It had not escaped her notice that a certain partner occasionally sported a tan line on a particular finger after her days off—very much like she was wearing a ring only when away from work.

"What's the matter? Watching your figure?" she prodded. "Something special coming up?"

"They have other stuff," Eddie tried to innocently defend that slip up although she had to bite the inside of her lip to stay straight-faced. "I just thought that maybe you wanted something besides burgers and fries today. I was trying to be considerate of my partner," she insisted and tried to turn the conversation backward.

"You can pick something else if you'd like."

"Yeah, right," came the unconvinced huff as they continued to stroll just as a large, dark SUV turned onto the street a block behind them and started to follow along in a slow speed chase.

"So, I heard Officer Long had some dish on the boss before he got bounced on those departmental charges," Maya continued to bait as the car behind them began to creep closer. "He said Stripes had an old lady and they're planning a wedding."

"Yeah, that's right," Eddie confirmed and carefully answered while trying to hide a hard swallow, knowing this was an expressed trap now. Her partner had been skeptical of her and Jamie's "professional" relationship almost from the start and had once asked how long they had been sleeping together. She had emphatically denied it at that time but knew the noose was tightening with every shift that passed, and the truth was bound to come out sooner or later. _Hopefully, once he's home tomorrow, we can restart that discussion and come up with a plan before we're outed anyway,_ she thought before continuing to cover.

"Wonder what she's like?" Maya pressed further before catching sight of that distinctive vehicle pulling up behind them out of the corner of her eye. "Uh, Janko, I think we have company," she warned nervously as her breath caught before stopping short with an outright guilty look, assuming that this probably had something to do with her own recent personal failings on the job which would soon come to light.

"She's nice, I think you'd like her," Eddie continued walking without missing a beat—so focused and determined to do what she could to keep the lie alive until her fiancé gave her the green light to come clean that it took another ten steps before she realized her partner was no longer at her side.

"Maya?" she questioned before turning around as her own heart dropped like a stone to the bottom of her toes at the sight of Frank Reagan's window rolling down and the stern face it revealed. "Oh no," she mouthed before beginning to panic inwardly. With Jamie in the hospital, there was only one reason she could think of that would have the Police Commissioner out here tracking her down in person with a look like that, and it made her nearly go faint. Little did she know the truth would be of small comfort as the youngest Reagan sibling remained unaccounted for after walking away against medical advice from such life-altering news and disappearing into the city.

"Officer Janko, I need a minute," Frank tightly ordered while his detail stepped away from the vehicle in a coordinated fashion to respect their boss's privacy as Detective Nuciforo stopped to be sure a stunned Maya did the same.

"What's happened?" Eddie demanded as she approached the far side of the car, no longer trying to conceal her concern. "Is he okay? Was he bleeding again? Is he in surgery?"

"No, it's not that," Frank answered at a loss as he searched for the words to explain the situation which could not be done on the street. "He's… I've had to give him some news, and he walked out of the hospital. I can't find him, and he's not answering my calls. Has he contacted you?"

"What do you mean he _left _the hospital?!" she demanded while fumbling to pull the phone out of her pocket and sighing when a swipe showed no notifications from him. "Some news?" she hissed as her suspicion grew. "What did you say to make him do that?!"

"Eddie, please… we have to find him! See if he'll pick up for you!" Frank begged even as she was automatically hitting the speed dial labeled simply "LC" for Lambchop.

"Voicemail," she informed while quickly pressing 7 to bypass the greeting message. "Jamie, it's me, please call me back right away. I just need to know you're okay," she finished before putting the phone down and swiping through the screens to the "Find My Friend" app they agreed to use to keep tabs on each other on the job since they were no longer in the car together. "It's off," she confirmed before looking up. "He's turned the phone off. Frank, what's going on?"

"Get in," he waved her to the other side of the car before sending Maya on a 10-2 back to the precinct alone with explicit orders from a very persuasive Nuciforo to report to her Captain and remain hushed about this action.

"Eddie," Frank started again when they were alone and both secured within the car. "I can't get into everything now, that's for a time when Jamie and I can sit down together, and he'll hear me out, but some information came to light this week while he was in the hospital… some very hurtful information for the whole family, but especially for him," he hedged with a deep breath before continuing. "I was waiting to explain until he was better, but there's no time now. Sweetheart, the basic blood typing they did that first night showed there's no possibility that he could be my biological son."

_"WHAT?!" _Eddie gasped as her hands flew to her face… the nerves from being summoned into the PC's car in this manner evaporating in an instant over the shock of what she just heard. Of all the possibilities that had been racing through her head, that revelation had been the furthest thing from her mind.

"OH MY GOD! Are you sure? Is it? Was he…?"

"Somehow switched at birth? No," Frank assured as he sought to do the impossible under these circumstances and give her only the pertinent the facts in a nutshell to save time. "He's Mary's… Danny, Joe and Erin's half-brother, just not mine," he admitted in a way that had become slightly easier to say now that he had been assured it was not due to anything his wife did purposefully. "DNA tests confirmed it. I tried to explain that to him; it ties into Erin's case she's bringing to a grand jury right now. It was a doctor named William Milner that my wife went to see only twice back then, but he did this to her when she was sedated. Eddie, we found out it wasn't his mother's fault at all!" he assured and switched over to automatically defending Mary after nearly a week of thinking the worst of her. "I told Jamie all this, but he was in shock. I don't think he heard me, or that it mattered," he worried once more. "I know this is a lot to take in and you don't have the details, but right now his safety is the only thing we should be concerned about. Dr. Patricelli said he'll most likely be fine as long as he doesn't fall down or have any more trauma. I just don't know where else to look. Erin has the apartment staked out, and Pop is waiting at home. Danny… well, he's not the first one that should find his brother right now, anyway."

"Oh, Frank," Eddie sat back, flabbergasted with her heart breaking for everyone and tried to process what she just heard, envisioning that it would be a million times harder for Jamie to do the same. "He must be absolutely crushed. I can't imagine how all of you are feeling. This is just…"

"Too much, I know," the Commissioner agreed before sitting back and closing his eyes. "I spent the last few days being angrier than ever before in my life at the woman I love with all my heart, and I wasn't thinking straight. I'm afraid Jamie is in the same place with me right now, and I'll never forgive myself if something happens to him because of it. I need your help, Eddie… I have to find my son."

###

"C'mon, Jamie… please lambchop, I know you're hurting, but let me find you," she pleaded hours later during yet another fruitless check of one of his known private places. Not surprisingly, after a quick stop at the 2-9 to change into street clothes while pointedly avoiding Maya's prying eyes and questions, Eddie hadn't been able to locate him at his favorite gym, café, or various bars within walking distance of Kings County or home. She had even checked the dog park local to their apartment where he often went to destress. Frank had covered the pier, their church and the cemetery near the house in Bay Ridge. The area hospitals were all on alert for anyone matching his description, but fortunately, there had been no reports of that nature. While Henry continued to keep the candle burning at home, Erin had been forced to abandon ship at the apartment as the DA's office went into crisis mode over the Milner indictment.

The Reagan family members, plus and minus one, were fast running out of ideas, and she had nothing left to offer—that was until a most welcoming text notification dinged through on her phone.

_hey Janko. Wy da hell is Harvard's sry ass here on my couch? come pick him up!_

"Renzulli!" Eddie gasped as her fingers flew to respond. Of course! Why hadn't she thought of that before? Jamie's former TO lived in East Flatbush, just blocks from Kings County and had always been like a second father figure to him—someone he sought out as a trusted confidant for good advice.

_pls keep him there, Sarge! I'll be right ovr!_

_10-4, Hurry he's drinking my beer!_

_Crap, he probably shouldn't be doing that on his meds,_ she thought when that reply came moments later, but frankly, it was the least of her worries at this point. A quick group text alerted everyone else that the fugitive had been found.

_Jamie's sfe w/ Renzulli, I'm gng2 gt him now. giv us some time alone._

Eddie hoped that the rest of the Reagans would respect that last request as she ran back to her car, pointed it in the direction of their former sergeant's house in the older Brooklyn neighborhood and stepped on the gas.

* * *

_Happy BB Friday! __I wrote this chapter before the S9:17 "Two-Faced" epi where we lost Maya to an IAB probe which was kinda disappointing as I liked her character, so she remains here at least for the time being. For the guest reviewer who hoped it was Renzulli that Jamie would seek out, good guess! I also so miss the Sarge and wish he could be part of the show once more, especially for the wedding, but if not on BB, than he'll at least live on here in werks-world!_

_Thanks once again for all of the reviews, please continue! I am currently finishing up the last chapter ~22 with some added angst at the end and could use the good vibes of those happy email dings to help me power through. When that's done and settled, I'll switch to a 2x a week Tues/Fri schedule through to the finish! _


	13. Chapter 13

_Happy BB Wedding week! So exciting! Just a few more days to the S9 finale and Frank saying the word "Jamko" after his toast, lol. Thank you for that BB writers!_

* * *

Chapter 13

Unsure of what Jamie might have shared with their former boss, especially given his current state and the fact that Renzulli had always been suspicious of their relationship, Eddie decided to play it cool and offer no more information than necessary upon her arrival. The modest residence in the East Flatbush Park section of Brooklyn was located just blocks away from Kings County Hospital and well within walking distance for even her still-recovering and shell-shocked fiancé.

That resolve went entirely out the window the moment she pulled up to find the older man sitting on the stoop alone in front of his three-story row house, waiting for her with his arms crossed in a familiar way.

"Hey, Sarge," she tried to feel him out, although it didn't take an expert at body language to know that the answers to some pretty tough questions were going to be required before she was allowed to pass.

"Janko," Renzulli addressed sternly, continuing to stare her down. "Wanna tell me what the hell we're all doing here today?" he interrogated like she was a two-bit perp he had up against the wall and was pressing for information.

"I, uh… well," she hesitated, knowing, on the one hand, she absolutely could not divulge anything beyond what Jamie might have revealed on his own, and on the other realizing no one was going anywhere until the seasoned sergeant was satisfied that he had been adequately looped in.

"It's a… um, it's a Reagan family thing," she settled on, hoping that might back him off a little.

"Yeah, I got that," he refused to budge. "The last two times I seen a look like this on one of their faces it was the kid here when the Commissioner took a shotgun blast to the shoulder outside a restaurant in Midtown, and I wouldn't let him be part of the task force guarding his old man while they looked for the shooter. Thought he was gonna take me out himself that time… wouldn't crack a smile… tried singin' to him in the car and everything," he remembered with a frown. "Then there was that time when Joe was my rookie. That kid was a real sweetheart, too, and he had to tell me his mom was diagnosed with cancer, and it didn't look good. Harvard's sitting inside there with a goddamn hospital band stuck on his wrist," he insinuated clearly, and she realized exactly where his concern was focused now.

"OH! Oh no!… Sarge, it's not anything like that!" Eddie quickly assured, seeing the immediate relief in the older man's eyes and knowing he had a particular soft spot for Jamie. Unfortunately, that also revealed she was indeed close enough to the situation to have the particulars. "I mean I know you probably heard about his accident at the hostage scene the other day, but he's really okay now. They were going to let him out of the hospital tomorrow, anyway."

"Yeah, I know all about all that and what his brother did stepping over his stripes in the field," Renzulli admitted as he had always held a particular disdain for the oldest Reagan sibling's tactics having experienced the same treatment himself upon occasion. "And yet we're here _today," _he reminded with emphasis and kept on her. "So, imagine my surprise when I get a call from the missus and rush home from work only to find Harvard sitting right here on my steps waiting for me… but he ain't said _nothing _yet!" he huffed. "The kid's locked up tighter than a clam's ass! His phone looks like it met with the wrong side of a Louisville Slugger, and all I could get outta him was your number… point blank told me not to call his old man. The fact he wanted _you _to come pick him up to take him home is pretty interesting, isn't it? I thought so considering he swore you never had anything going on! So, spill it, Janko! I wanna know why we're here!"

"I… I can't," she balked, looking nervously at the door and wanting nothing more than to rush to Jamie's side and reassure him that everything was going to be fine while fully aware now that on top of everything else their relationship had been found out. "Sarge… I swear I would tell you if I could, but he _really _just needs to see his dad! This is bad, but not bad like you're thinking! You know the Reagans, no matter what happens they talk and talk and eventually work things out, and that's all I'm gonna say! Now let me in there!" she demanded with an impatient little petulant stomp of her foot for emphasis.

"Well, you certainly seem to have all the inside poop. So, I guess I got lied to by both of ya… only supposed to be partners," he scoffed. "BULLCRAP! And now he's your boss!" Renzulli grumbled and refused to move out of the way until he had something to hang his hat on. "At least admit the two of you have something going on!" he ordered while wagging his finger in her direction.

"WE'RE ENGAGED, all due respect, sir!" she bit back with an answer and voice that was sharp and confident and left him speechless for once as that meek little rookie with the funny name he had once assigned to his favorite boot had certainly grown into herself since then. "You'll be getting a wedding invitation in the mail next month, SO SAVE THE _DAMN _DATE, or we'll send you pictures!" she added, opting for a familiar tried-and-true tirade in this time of stress. "And before you ask, NO!... nothing really ever happened between us when we were riding together at the 12th, we got together right at the end of that, plus I'll probably be transferring out of the 2-9 before it becomes official, anyway, and YES!... the Commissioner knows all about it because I sit at his freaking dinner table every Sunday and break bread with the whole family! Any other questions?"

"The Commissioner's _freaking _dinner table?… No, I got nothin' more than that. C'mon in," Renzulli admitted in a vastly toned-down manner as he could only imagine the stones it took for her to walk into that house and insert herself into that blue-blooded family that way. As long as he had known them, he had to admit the Reagans still managed to scare him more than a bit. Honestly, though, he couldn't have been happier for these two as he had always known what the pair had stubbornly refused to admit before now—that Edit Janko and Jameson Reagan were perfect for each other and should have been married with a couple little rugrats of their own running around long before now.

"And Janko," he added after relenting and letting her by as they walked up the steps together. "Congratulations. It's about damn time."

"Thank you, Sarge," she reciprocated, although her eyes were only for Jamie as they entered the house, spotting him first through the foyer's old-style French doors as he sat quietly in the living room staring at the TV with a rather blank, unremarkable look on his face and a longneck bottle in his hand.

"Marie ran to the store to get something to cook up for him… she thinks he's stressed about being a boss at work and just needs to eat more. I'm guessing I'll be delivering a couple of his favorite bacon, egg and spinach casseroles over to Brooklyn Heights tomorrow," Renzulli explained his wife's absence. "It's not like Harvard was up for much talking, anyway."

"Yeah, I get that," Eddie acknowledged softly before moving inside, unsure of how to start the conversation, especially since she had company at her side and secrets to keep. "How much has he had to drink?"

"That? C'mon, give me some credit. I told you I saw the hospital band and figured he might be on something. He's so out of it he didn't even notice when I swapped my favorite lager for an O'Doul's," he referred to the non-alcoholic variety. "The wife bought me a case of that crap last year; I still had some in the cabinet. Tastes like warm…"

"Sarge," Eddie stopped him before he continued with anything vulgar. "Let me give it a try… alone, okay?"

"Yeah, sure thing, Janko. Take your time. I'll wait outside," he offered before leaving to give them some privacy.

"Hey," she decided upon after moving into the room alone and was grateful to see Jamie's eyes immediately track over once he heard her voice. "You had a lot of people worried, including me," she acknowledged before kneeling down by the chair and taking the hand he had resting by his side. "I've been looking all over for you… I'm glad you're okay though."

"Sorry," he acknowledged with a hollow, rough swallow. "I guess I dropped my phone."

"Yeah, more like smashed it into a million pieces from what I heard."

Suddenly the minimalist way of communicating they often used with each other during emotional times like this seemed to be the better approach as Renzulli was right, Jamie was not up for much conversation. First, though, she had to be sure he shouldn't be making a return trip to Kings.

"But you're feeling okay?" she pressed. "Not dizzy or anything, and you didn't fall down, right?"

"No."

"Then you wanna come home with me now?… Just me," she pleaded softly with a guarantee to follow. "I'll make sure of that."

"If I do… we gotta talk about it?" he managed after a moment, not willing or ready to go there yet, and unsure of everything she had been told. Obviously, it had been enough to steer her here though, and she seemed desperate enough to do just about anything to bring him back.

"No," Eddie swore with a shake of her head. "Not until you want to. I promise. Okay?"

"Yeah," he agreed, and that was how Jameson Reagan found himself retrieved from the Renzulli residence and deposited back in his Brooklyn Heights apartment bed after a nearly silent ride there in the driver's side rear seat of Eddie's car so that the seatbelt didn't cross his injury.

"Are you hungry?" she offered while toweling off her hair after a quick shower. "I can order some soup and sandwiches from the corner."

"Sure," he conceded since it would have been a continued effort on her part to get him to eat something and it was just easier to give in and push the food away after a bite or two.

"Okay," she sighed, reading his intention clearly and having promised not to start a particular conversation before he was ready. A short, but intensely whispered exchange masked by the sound of water running in the shower a few minutes ago had her rethinking that approach as a desperate father had expressed his intent to visit early the following morning since the matter behind this was time sensitive.

"Jamie, your Dad…" she began.

"You mean _Frank?" _he cut her off at the quick with dripping emphasis, not feeling generous enough to use that particular term of endearment at the moment and clearly showing that the rage and hurt behind those normally gentle hazel eyes had not been knocked down enough for non-emotional, objective thinking yet. "Or maybe I should say the 'excluded alleged paternal contributor' since he decided to run a DNA test on me without asking."

"Don't do that," Eddie frowned.

"I thought we weren't doing _this, _Ed," he reminded while looking away as his gaze became fixed and stone cold again. "He went behind my back and told Danny and Erin first… did he mention that to you too?"

"No…" she admitted as that betrayal came as a bit of a shock, given that she wasn't privy to all that was happening, but that did not stop his run once the dam broke again.

"Did he bother to come to me and try to explain anything before that?" Jamie was muttering more to himself than anyone else as the words that had been jamming his mind came pouring out. "No, of course not; in fact, he avoided me all week and went straight to Danny. DANNY! How do you think that makes me feel? My brother, or should I say, the PC's _real _son, who's supposed to be on suspension for not following my direct order, gets a pass again and is cherrypicked to work this case! MY CASE! Before I even knew about it!"

"Okay, I know you're angry, and have every right to be about some of this," she countered and crawled in the bed next to him, hoping that her touch and closeness might finally break some of these barriers down. "But not with your father, Jamie. He's never going to see you as any different than Danny or Erin, and I'm sure he was just trying to protect you while you were hurt. I won't lie and say I can possibly understand what it felt like to hear this news, but you can't put the blame where it doesn't belong… he's already doing enough of that on his own. It was a shock to him too. Your Dad had no idea this happened to your mother, or I'm pretty sure he would have killed that Milner guy years ago and no one would have ever found the body. I know he feels the same now considering what it's doing to you."

"What it's doing to me," he lamented as his own altered personal identity and rift with his family had not been the whole of what he was focused on in the hours since that shocking reveal.

"How about what it _might _do to us?!"

"Us?" Eddie puzzled as she put her hand on his cheek and softly pulled his face around to study his expression. "Sweetie, this has nothing at all to do with us," she assured.

"Really? You won't be marrying the son of a long line of police commissioners," he reminded sadly. "Our kids won't have their genes either… they'll be half of me, or exactly one-quarter serial rapist, instead. Do you want that? Because it's part of who I am now. As a woman and a mom someday, can you honestly tell me something like that would never cross your mind?"

"Wait, so you're feeling guilty for _that? _Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? You realize you're talking to the daughter of a convicted felon who stole millions in a Ponzi scheme," she reminded and hugged the man she intended to marry who would worry about things like that ten years into the future. It was, after all, how he was built. "If that's the case, our kids are already screwed. Are you going to look at them and tell their friends to put locks on their piggy banks because you think half of my genes will turn our children into him?"

"No, I guess not," he backed down, having failed to factor that into the equation. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Armin Janko had any influence on his daughter at all.

"You _guess _not," she repeated with a heavy sigh, knowing that arguing over these what-if issues was pointless for now until he had enough time to process things. "C'mere," she chose to change tactics instead and sidled them both down until they were laying close to one another under the blankets with her arms wrapped tightly around him. "I'm not letting go until you realize you're the exact same person you were five minutes before hearing about any of this."

"I don't think that's ever gonna be possible, Ed," he admitted sadly.

"Well, then we'll be here for a really long time. Jamie, I know your heart, and now I know that you got everything that's good in it from your Mom, learned everything good from your Dad, Pop, and the rest of the family, and our kids will have the same from you. That other man, if you can call him that, is nothing in your life and never has been."

"But maybe that's why I've always kinda felt out of place, Ed. Before everyone wrote it off because I was the youngest, or the smallest, or the Boy Scout, or that Mom wanted me to be a lawyer and go to Harvard… but now, what if it's really that I'm not like everyone else?" he worried. "Danny always said we couldn't be more different, so I guess he's the better detective after all… he sure was right."

"Well, thank God for that, because I fell in love with Jamie Reagan, not Danny, Joe, or in this day and age, I'd have to add Erin. You're the perfect one for me, and if all of this hadn't happened exactly like it did, would we both be together in this bed right now? No. I know your heart is hurting, and this isn't going away anytime soon, but do you really think anyone will love you less because of it?"

"Not even close, lambchop," she added with another squeeze and a reassuring kiss on his cheek when he failed to respond. "And I'm including your Dad, too, because that's what he is, has been and always will be."

* * *

_So, Eddie is working her charms and that will hopefully take some of the sting out of this for Jamie before he has to face the rest of it. Next, Frank makes another attempt to explain things to his son and gets a reluctant approval to take it to the next level if necessary._


	14. Chapter 14

_Crazy busy day today! T-minus a little over 9hrs to the start of the BB season 9 finale for me! Whoot!_

* * *

Chapter 14

"Frank," Eddie greeted a sorrowful-looking father when he arrived at their door just after seven the next morning, bearing gifts of coffee, bagels and Jamie's favorite egg-white breakfast wraps. "Listen, I'm not sure it's the right time yet," she admitted quietly before explaining. "He didn't sleep much at all last night then got up to take a shower this morning before you came, and the steam and heat made him a little woozy. I think he should be back in bed. He says he's fine, but if it gets any worse, I'm gonna take him back to the ER."

"I have to see him, Eddie," Frank insisted. "Some things have to be dealt with now. If there's any question, we'll go back to Kings right away, okay?"

"Alright," she relented against her better judgment and allowed her future father-in-law inside just as Jamie emerged from the hallway and met Frank's eyes. "He's here," she announced with a nervous look between the two of them. "If you need me, I'll be in the bedroom," she offered, assuming they would want privacy.

"No, stay," Frank insisted as he looked at his son who was standing there opposite of him, dressed in comfortably in a t-shirt and sweatpants, but avoiding prolonged eye contact while trying to harness his raw emotions. "What I need to say, the both of you should hear."

"Yeah, stay, Ed," Jamie finally spoke up, but there was a coldness in his tone that did not sound promising. "I don't keep secrets from her," he added with his first pointed look and implied the opposite of his father, of course.

"Okay, maybe I deserved that," Frank acknowledged as he moved into the living room and sat down on the edge of the chair hoping they would join him. "And this hasn't been easy for me either, Jameson, but it's time we talk… or maybe you could just try listening for a little while, and I'll explain what I can."

"That didn't work out so good last time."

"Jamie, c'mon, just let him say what he needs to," Eddie tried to referee in what had become a familiar role lately. "You're going to have to hear it sooner or later."

"Alright, so get it over with then," he indicated with a half wave and his arms crossed, deliberately still keeping his distance. "This should be fun."

"The other night when I first found out about this, I didn't take it well either," Frank admitted, wanting nothing more than to go and put an arm around his son, who was obviously struggling, even though he realized that would be the absolute wrong move at this point. "That's why I left without saying anything. I was blindsided and angry like you are right now, and I wasn't thinking straight. I was there when you were born, and there was no doubt in my mind you were that same little boy we welcomed to this world in that elevator, but I'm ashamed to say I thought badly of your mother… I blamed her for this at first until your grandfather finally set me straight."

"Why? Why would you do that?" Jamie lashed out since he felt obliged in this instance to defend her honor. "Did you really believe Mom could ever do something like that to you?"

"I'm sure it's just because of the shock," Eddie tried once again to mitigate and keep his emotions under wraps. "No one would think otherwise at first."

"It was guilt… mine," Frank answered honestly instead. "And this is something I haven't shared directly with your brother and sister yet, although Pop knows. Months before she got pregnant that last time, your mom and I went through a rough patch," he revealed sadly. "It was my fault… I was more focused on the job than her. She was lonely and reached out in friendship to a professor at Hudson while she was volunteering there; he was someone she could talk to… a man named Thomas Vintner. When I found out, we fought, and even though she promised me it was never more than that, I was jealous and that finally brought me back to my senses. I never took your mother for granted again, but when this came up…" he trailed off. "The timing was almost right, and I assumed he was the one until Pop called me out on it. Vintner died in an accident before you were even born. That's why I ran the DNA… to see if there was any way to be sure it was him before I told you, but I never expected what we found."

"Yeah, me either," Jamie sniffed and turned away again.

"This doctor… Milner," his father started with a hard swallow, as Eddie was right, if there were only some way that Frank Reagan could get his hands on him now, no one would ever hear of him again. "When things were better between us, your Mom wanted another baby, but it didn't seem to be working after more than six months of trying. We were referred to this man for a test that pushed some kind of dye through her tubes while they x-rayed to see if there was any type of obstruction. We met him once in his office for a consult, and then another time at the hospital when she had the procedure done. Your mother, she didn't like him from the start," he remembered with a deep sigh and frown, wishing now that he had paid more attention to those instincts. "She said his eyes were too cold, even though he looked perfectly normal to me, but it was only supposed to be that one test, and he had an opening the next week. We didn't want to wait and miss more time. Afterward, the nurse came out and said it was taking longer than normal because they had given Mary some medication to help her relax and were waiting for it to wear off. That's when he must have… I was sitting right outside in the waiting room while he…" Frank's voice broke with heavy anger for the first time. "Your mother thought she was just sore from the procedure, so we never knew!" he railed and only could continue after a few minutes when he had composed himself again. "They told us the best chance to conceive was right afterward because if there was a blockage, it might be opened. She was confirmed to be pregnant just weeks later, and we celebrated that and never looked back. Until now," he paused.

"Because I needed the damn blood for that stupid accident," Jamie acknowledged, still bitter about the reasons behind that.

"Yes, and Dr. Patricelli was on hand who delivered you in the first place. But for her, and Erin remembering details about your mother's blood type when she was asking us to donate, we might never have known."

"Would that have been so bad?" Jamie grieved as he finally gave in and collapsed on the couch, wishing more than anything they could turn the clock back a week. Hell, if nothing else he would have given Danny the go-ahead to move into that jewelry store guns blazing if it had only not led to this.

"No, not at all," Frank agreed as he leaned forward, trying to bridge the distance between them and understanding that sentiment completely while taking the first opportunity he had been given to assure his son of the same. "And I want you to know that it doesn't change anything between us, Jamie… except that we do know now, and your mother wasn't the only one he did this to," he concluded.

"Great, so there's more," his youngest moaned as he leaned back and stared up at the ceiling while waiting for the next shoe to drop. "Figures. As if being a bastard wasn't enough."

"Don't say that!" Eddie objected to his characterization. "Frank, how do you know all of this already?" she asked while joining her fiancé on the couch and putting a hand on his leg to try and ground him. "I mean it's only been a few days."

"Because my _brother_, the great detective, Daniel Reagan, was on the case and managed to solve it in mere minutes," Jamie surmised with a snap of his fingers as he suddenly sniped back, triggered again as those feelings regarding his oldest now _half-_sibling's involvement in the case had not been forgiven or forgotten yet. "Bet he couldn't wait to prove otherwise."

"That's not true, Danny and Erin are both just as devastated over this!" Eddie insisted. "And they're worried about you too! I have like a hundred texts from each of them in just the last day to prove it! Maybe if you had a working phone, you'd know that!"

"She's right, Jamie," Frank revealed. "At the time I asked for his help, your brother had no idea about your situation, and I had no way of knowing that Erin was already pursuing a grand jury indictment against Milner. Detective Baker ran your profile against our database and found a match… a three-year-old boy named Matthew Bastien."

"So, she knows too?! Is there _anyone _who didn't find out before me? Next thing you're going to say is Garrett gave it to the press already!" Jamie heatedly focused on that aspect of the statement while Eddie locked on to another with a slew of questions ready to rapid-fire.

"Wait, the boy is _THREE?! _Is he _still _doing this? How old is this man now?!"

"Late-sixties," Frank informed them reluctantly. "But apparently still a virile predator."

"So, there's more half…" she gasped but stopped herself short before referring to them as siblings. "You know, people like Jamie out there? How many? What do you mean Erin is _trying _to indict him? Already? How does that work?"

"The boy _was _three," Frank recounted the tragedy sadly. "His DNA was in the department files because he and his mother were the victims of a domestic homicide case. Her husband ran them down with his car more than a year ago when he found out the boy wasn't his because he was an abuser and assumed as I did, that his wife had an affair. I only told Danny it was need-to-know and sent him to Sing Sing to interview this man to see if we could get a lead on who the biological father might be. That's when he found out Detective Abetemarco had previously been there, and it led him back to Erin and the fact she was already investigating this. Your brother went to meet her when she was coming out of court, and that's what you saw in Maureen Saunders' photo… she's the young, investigative reporter from New York 1 pushing this," he added and explained to Eddie in case she wasn't already aware. "She's part of a group that identified each other through one of those genealogy sites and narrowed it down to Milner."

"Wait, so now it's a _group?_… Jesus," Jamie repeated as he rolled his eyes up once more, absorbing yet another hit and suddenly feeling that his life was snowballing out of control even faster than before. Now, for all he knew in addition to a new half-sister in this Saunders woman, he was part of a damn cluster of evil Milner half-clones. "How many?"

"Two others that we know about in addition to the boy and Saunders," his father revealed cautiously. "Both young women about your age or younger, but honestly if he's been doing this for so long, there's likely a much longer list," he admitted. "One of the mothers is unwilling to come out as a victim, the other unable, like your mom and Ella Bastien, to confirm Milner's involvement. It's a he said, she won't or can't say case, and he can claim their relationships were consensual… that these women specifically asked for his help to get pregnant. I think in his sick, twisted mind he actually believes that," Frank growled since that was certainly not the situation with his own wife, but impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt at this point. "Erin linked their cases to Matthew Bastien when the DNA popped and brought a grand jury to try and indict Milner on first-degree rape charges so that he gets the maximum five to twenty-five, but it's not looking good. She has until court ends today, or the statute of limitations passes for second-degree and below. If she can't make a case for first here, the DA won't pursue it."

"But what happened to Mary was more than thirty years ago," Eddie puzzled. "And she's gone too, so what else is there to do?"

"The nurse who came out to tell me your mom wasn't awake yet," Frank swallowed as he had sensed the next part might be even harder to justify given the circumstances. "When she said that, I got scared because she looked so nervous. I never forgot about it because I thought something was wrong with Mary. Erin checked the records, and she's the same one he's employed all those years."

"Oh my God! So, she _knew _what he was doing all along! She must have!" Eddie gasped in disbelief that another woman could be part of such a horrible thing.

"Yes, she had to, and worse, facilitated it. She'd purposefully leave the room to allow him to…"

"And now you want her to roll over on Milner," Jamie interrupted with no wish to hear the rest of that comment as his lawyer brain clicked over, and he began to fill in some of the gaps on his own. "You can't do that though unless Erin charges her too, and then offers her a plea deal for a lesser sentence, right? Because first-degree rape is a felony and she can be hit with conspiracy on top of that. But there has to be a witness… one that carries enough weight to threaten her."

"Yes," Frank acknowledged, knowing his son had already made the leap into what that might mean for him.

"And there's already a reporter involved with a personal stake in this."

"Yes. Erin will try to keep our name out of it, but if this nurse, Rita Begley, calls her bluff, she'll have to recuse herself, and I have to be prepared to follow through. News of this will get out then no matter what. As much as I want him to pay for what he did, I… Jamie, I won't do it without your permission," Frank promised even though he knew what he was asking and the notoriety it would cause in a click-hungry press.

"And if I say no, then he gets away with it… what he did to Mom and the others, and Erin gets blasted in the press, so everyone will find out anyway," his broken son surmised as his eyes welled up with guilt at the thought and the utter cruelness of the lose-lose situation. Still, there was no getting around what this would bring with it under the microscopic and rabid lens of the press, and the thought was enough to make his chest tighten with anxiety.

"But if you say yes…" Eddie urged with a little obvious prodding, knowing that no matter how hard it would be to face, that was ultimately the only decision he would be able to live with.

"Even if you say yes, Erin might not be able to keep my name confidential, and it will be in every news media outlet by the eleven o'clock run," Frank admitted, feeling a tremendous amount of guilt for what he was asking his son to endure potentially. "And like with Saunders, it won't take them long to do the math."

"Which makes this suck even more, as if that was even possible, doesn't it? Do you know how much crap I've taken in my life _because _I was your son?! And now that I'm not…"

"Jamie, you _are," _Frank corrected even though he had been having the same difficulty admitting it when the news first rocked him. "You are _my _son, so please don't ever say or think that again. You're the exact same boy your mother and I loved from before you were born and raised together… the same brother that Erin and Danny and Joe always had. That will never change no matter what some piece of paper says."

"But I won't be… not after this, or ever again in the department once it gets out, right? Before everything I earned was because of a hook, now it will be out of what, pity, won't it? And I can't not do it, because no one else in the family would ever understand why; it wouldn't be the Reagan way. Maybe that just proves I'm not true blue and never was. Just…" Jamie paused, having suddenly and completely run out of the will to fight any longer. "I don't care; it is what it is. I'll deal with it. Do whatever you have to or let Erin and Danny handle things. I don't want any part of it," he resigned sadly, leaving it in his father's hands and without another word to him before getting up and retreating to the bedroom alone to close the door.

"Frank, he does care," Eddie assured as she saw the older man's face fall even lower when Jamie walked out with no apparent sign of forgiveness. "He cares so much that it's ripping him apart inside. He just needs some time until he figures out how to handle things."

"I know the feeling," her prospective father-in-law admitted as he stared back at the hall and wondered if he should press any further before deciding that would likely not help.

"You and Pop are his heroes… and Danny too, even though he won't admit that until they settle this thing between them," Eddie added. "But right now, he thinks that maybe this is the reason you never saw him the same way as his brothers, or won't anymore," she revealed sadly. "And maybe not for you, but I think it might have been easier on him if this had been because of a one-time mistake your wife had with that Vintner guy. Maybe he could have accepted that and forgiven it eventually. Now, when he looks in the mirror, all he sees is the monster that did this to his mother, and he's worried about things like how that might affect our kids in the future or even me."

"He's always been a long-range thinker," Frank acknowledged, even as his own heart broke a little more over the fact those precious someday grandchildren wouldn't carry his blood either. For two people who weren't related in that way, he and Jamie couldn't be more similar.

"Yeah, I get that, and it's been less than a day, so he's still processing. I just hope all this grand jury stuff won't make it harder," she continued. "I'll keep working on him."

"Do that, sweetheart, he'll listen to you, and ask him about Kyle Jimenez when you can. It's a case he worked with Vinny before you came on the job," he explained while getting up to take his leave and place a call to his daughter to let her know the plan was a go despite the pain it was causing her brother.

"God help us, if this doesn't work, that might just help."

* * *

_Poor Frank, he's doing the best he can in a tough situation now, but Eddie is right, Jamie needs a little more time. Next, the rest of the Reagans go introspective while they try to make sense of what's happened as Danny and Erin deal with the nurse before the rush is on to find Milner and Frank and Henry have another father/son heart-to-heart._


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Dad says it's a go," Erin reported after hanging up the phone and walking out of her office to stand next to her older brother in the hallway. They both quietly contemplated what that meant for a moment and stared through the slatted, half-drawn horizontal shades into the conference room where Margarite "Rita" Begley, aka a list of aliases too long to name, sat nervously with a distant cousin who was serving as her cut-rate lawyer while waiting anxiously to hear what kind of a plea the DA's office was willing to offer in return for her testimony.

"Anthony's busy tracking down Milner's whereabouts right now, and he'll sit on him with a warrant team ready to go the second I get that indictment. I just really hope I don't have to use Dad's name at all. He said Jamie agreed to do this, but he's still having a really tough time with everything."

"Wouldn't you?" Danny huffed and considered what their youngest sibling was facing, still trying to process the events of the last few days himself. "He probably just wants to get his hands on these two. I know Linda would have to tie me down…" he trailed off on that sad note, caught in the present tense with the thought of the extent his late wife would have had to go to keep him in line under circumstances like this. "I mean I'm just surprised he's not already here," he covered that slip. "I guess Eddie can handle him after all."

"Doesn't sound like she has to worry about that," his sister revealed dejectedly. "Dad also said Jamie wants no part of this… that he's leaving it up to us."

"No part of _this, _or no part of _us?" _he returned, truly surprised at that revelation and suddenly concerned that it might be the latter, and perhaps even worse. "Or do you think it's just me?"

"No, it can't be that… I don't know, he won't answer me either, Danny," Erin worriedly admitted. "He won't pick up and I've left like ten voice mails. Eddie let him know I've been calling, but I haven't heard anything back. She said not to come over yet though because he's still not feeling all that great, and she doesn't want him to get more upset and wind up back at Kings."

"Jesus, I hate when he gets scary quiet about shit and tunes us out. He did it when Mom died, and then Joe…" her older brother trailed off as this felt like somewhat of a death in the family too. "He's like the old man that way… I'd rather have him yelling at me instead."

"Me too," she agreed. "But Danny, you can't say stuff like that anymore!" she warned thinking about what Jamie and her father's reaction to that comparison might be and how it wouldn't help the present situation between the two brothers at all. "Please don't! Not in front of either of them, at least not for a while until this doesn't hurt so bad! It's just gonna remind everyone…"

"Yeah, I know," he acknowledged after a pause and wondered if he would ever be able to rein himself in before making a comment like that in anyone else's presence. "I gotta learn to keep my mouth shut about that stuff. That's gonna be hard though. How am I supposed to wipe it away? Whether he thinks so or not, he's always just gonna be my kid brother. Growing up, out of all of us, I always thought he and Joe were most like Dad."

"But Jamie _is," _she returned with emphasis. "Maybe it's the whole nature versus nurture thing. I used to assume we all did this because it was in our blood like Dad and Grandpa, now I think it's more the way we were raised… the stories we heard around the table our whole life."

"Yeah, that or the fact Mom was more of a hard-ass than we gave her credit for. I mean, she was a better detective than any of us even though she hated the job," Danny noted with a shrug. "No one ever got anything past her, right? I know I couldn't no matter how hard I tried."

"Me either," Erin admitted. "She was like a human lie detector. It's funny," she paused and thought about a recent conversation. "Eddie mentioned the exact same thing about Jamie the other week… she said it was tough being engaged to one."

"Not easy growing up with one either," he sighed. "Weird how that works, isn't it? Wonder what else he got from this Milner guy… the smarts? He is really a doctor, right? He didn't fake that too?"

"No, I checked. Milner finished top of his class at Johns Hopkins, at least that's what the records say, so I guess Jamie and Maureen came by that honestly… thank God they didn't get his morality."

"Yeah, but that'll still have tongues wagging in the department for sure if it gets out," Danny frowned. "He'll be the black sheep… guilt by association. The kid will be on the front page of every paper as the PC's bastard son, and somehow, they'll drag it out to use it politically against Dad too every chance they get… it'll never be over. I still can't believe this happened, Erin!" he admitted in sympathy as he ran his fingers over his head in a classic stress tell and glared through the window once again at the woman who had allowed such horrible things to be done to his mother and other defenseless victims for so many years.

"I'd like to have five minutes alone with both of them," he growled with renewed vigor.

"You _did," _she reminded and prepared to put a deal on the table that saw Begley punished to a lesser extent and ensured Milner was indicted on no less than five counts of first-degree rape with more likely to follow. "Anthony was worried about that when you both drove out to Canarsie to pick her up, but he told me you didn't say so much as two words to her on the whole ride back. Why?" she demanded.

"I guess I didn't want to give up Dad or Jamie," her ofttimes hotheaded older brother tried to convince although that excuse fell on skeptical ears. "Figured if I opened my mouth and told her what I really thought, she might know why I was there and use it against us to get a better plea. You have enough problems with that Saunders woman. I sure hope she sticks to her promise to back off if Milner winds up being indicted."

"Daniel Reagan was worried about being subtle and making my job easier… the man who waterboards child molesters in toilet bowls and never asked me for a warrant he didn't feel he deserved," Erin snorted, not believing that sorry excuse for a second. "Try again, mister."

"Okay, so maybe on the whole way out there, all I could think of was what I was going to do when I got a hold of her," he admitted. "She enabled this effing monster for years, and after what he did…" he hissed as his blood pressure flared once more. "You said from what she told you and without remembering names that Mom was probably the first one… that he had a thing for brunettes and knew how badly she wanted another baby. That's what set him off and why this whatever-her-name-was-back-then was so nervous when Dad saw her. It was the first goddamn time Miner put her up to help him do this, and he got away with it! What did she get from it? A few extra bucks in her paycheck every time? THAT WAS ENOUGH?! He picked OUR mother to start this, Erin! Nothing you can do to Begley or that bastard is enough! The DA should let the families deal with them, and this would never happen again!"

"And she's gonna pay for that," she assured. "Once I threatened to bring a witness forward, she folded like a cheap suit… never even asked for Dad's name. Said after the news broke about how they caught that guy in California last year, and the others since, she knew someone was going to be knocking on her door sooner or later with everyone and their cousin taking DNA tests these days. All she wanted was the best deal she could get, and that's still gonna involve prison time as long as nothing changes when I put this on the table," his sister promised. "I'm not too worried. That lawyer she has is a worthless hack. He couldn't get her out of a trumped-up parking ticket. Normally I feel a little guilty when I go up against someone like that, but this time it's my pleasure. She'll do at least ten before there's any chance of parole."

"Not enough," Danny frowned, still convinced of that fact. "Two years for each illegitimate child we _know _of. Should be accessory to murder considering what happened to that little Bastien kid. How many times did Milner do this and not get caught that way? I mean for a repro doctor he was kinda stupid, right? If he had used a condom no one would have ever found out."

"No, he _wanted _to father those babies," Erin disagreed. "Rape is all about power, not sex; you know that. He did this out of some kind of God complex… to prove he could, or he was better than the husbands maybe," she was convinced, sad to think of her father that way. "Maybe he saw Dad in his office that first time and wanted to show he was a bigger man. Once Milner hits prison, he'll find out exactly what Mom and the rest of these women went through, only it'll be worse because he won't be sedated for it and he'll remember every single detail… child molesters and rapists," she frowned while reminding her brother of the code that was likely to take care of the problem, anyway.

"Hope so," Danny agreed, and promised himself whatever facility this Milner ended up in would receive a full account of his actions anonymously through the inmate grapevine if necessary.

"That still doesn't explain why you gave _her _a pass," Erin pressed and referred back to Begley who was less likely to receive such treatment inside although wouldn't be looking at an easy ride either.

"I wasn't gonna," Danny admitted. "But then I started thinking about what woulda happened if she _didn't _do what she did… we wouldn't have Jamie, right? Or maybe even any other brother or sister since Dad said they were having problems that way. I mean right now the way things are between him and me maybe I still don't have one, but…"

"I know, I thought about that too," she revealed. "And as much as I hate them for what they did, I love him so much more, and I know Mom did too. If she knew…"

"She woulda gone through that again, and more for him… for any of us," Danny agreed.

"'Everything happens for a reason, sweetheart,' she would have said, and then made us believe that," Erin added. "Dad's having a worse time of it. He feels guilty for being there and not protecting Mom, but I'm sure he's thinking the same thing. If he had… at least we're still Jamie's sister and brother though," she added, refusing to insert that "half" descriptor which was completely wrong in her opinion. "How would you feel if you found out Jack or Sean weren't yours that way?" she wondered. "I know if it were Nicky, it would never change how much I love her, but I wouldn't stop crying for weeks, maybe ever… Jamie and Dad, they've always been so close."

"Yeah, that's gotta be killing the old man," Danny agreed. "I'd want to think it wouldn't come between me and the boys or anything, but I'm sure he's worried about that. When he calls me up and wants to meet for a drink, it's always because I screwed up or need a fatherly kick in the ass."

"For me, it's when he needs to check in or talk about work," Erin agreed. "He and Jamie were always the sit back, have a beer and watch the game buddies though… more like Joe. Dad can't lose that twice! Not on top of everything else!"

"So how are we going to make this right with the kid?" Danny worried over his relationship going forward with his youngest sibling. "I know he's gotta be pissed about how this went down with us finding out before him, and I said some things before we knew…" he trailed off and worried about the possibility of never being forgiven for those hurtful words. "Some stupid stuff I really regret now. It's not like I can just call him up, ask him out to a bar or go shoot hoops and blow the rest of this off like we usually do after a fight. I mean he's got others now, right? Who knows how many? Even that Saunders woman is more like him than me. Didn't you say she was top of her law class at Stanford? What if he doesn't need us anymore?"

"Danny, do you think that would ever happen? He's _our _brother!" Erin fretted as her voice rose a few octaves even though the same possibility and feeling of jealousy had crossed her mind as well. "He'll be there for dinner on Sunday, just like always! He never misses one! You'll see! Eddie will make sure of it!"

"I sure hope so," Daniel Reagan prayed that was the case, but for once in his life, he wasn't certain it would be, and he couldn't sit around any longer thinking about it. "I gotta do something. Tell Anthony I'm on my way. We have to find this Milner guy before anything else happens. He's not getting away with this or making it any harder on Jamie or Dad. I owe everyone that much," he added before taking his leave.

###

"Brooding alone again, I see," Henry noted as he located Frank sitting by himself Saturday evening in the darkened sunroom with just the flickering, near volumeless television turned on for light and the distraction of a basketball game. "The Knicks?" he guffed at their beloved New York team who was in the midst of an extended winless streak and sighed at the losing scoreline against the Toronto Raptors late in the final quarter.

"98 to 128? How do you stay interested?"

"For the lessons in character," Frank answered in a familiar way as he sat there stretching out the last two fingers from the top-shelf bottle Jamie had brought by to celebrate his top placing in the sergeant's test what felt like a lifetime ago already.

"Sorry, I'm not very good company tonight," he added.

"No word then I take it," Henry pried as he sat down in the opposite chair, the two older men still waiting to hear from Erin or Danny that Milner had been located and taken into custody.

"Haven't found him yet," his son confirmed with a heavy inward sigh as he took another sip from the glass tumbler.

"I meant from Jamie," Henry scoffed.

"Then the answer is neither, Pop. It's only been a few days since I upended everything he thought he knew about himself. I don't want to press him any harder. The next move has to be his, and his alone. If he comes to dinner tomorrow, we'll know which way this is going."

"And you're staying out of the Milner search too?" Henry wondered as normally the Police Commissioner would have found a way to involve himself in the hunt. "Can I ask why?"

"It's Erin's case, or so I was told," Frank resolved as he had been informed in no uncertain terms many times lately that his daughter was fully capable of handling her own business. "If she wanted my help, she would have asked."

"Well, that's a bunch of bull hockey, and you know it, but I'm sure they're doing everything possible," his father assured although he would have liked to have included himself, anyway. "That never stopped you from butting in before though, so maybe you're not ready for him to be found," he pressed. "Or you don't think Jamie is."

"He's not," Frank answered and skated past his own personal feelings, as that was one point, in particular, he was certain of. "I'm not even sure he'll be here with us tomorrow."

"So, that's what's bothering you tonight?" Henry pried, trying to keep the conversation going to eke out some of Frank's bottled up emotions—the same thing a now-familiar blonde was attempting to do in Brooklyn Heights at that very moment while secretly arranging a special meeting for the next day to open them up even more.

"That and something Eddie said… she told me Jamie thinks this might be the reason his mother and I didn't see him the same as the others… why we treated him differently, and maybe he's right," he admitted painfully. "Pop, I think Mary knew all along."

"BALDERDASH!" Henry protested as his anger flashed. _"THAT'S _what's you're dwelling on again? Francis Reagan, we've been through all this! That nurse already confessed Milner drugged her! NOW, WHAT? You really still believe Mary had a hand in it? She asked for it?"

"No, of course not… not consciously," Frank clarified as he walked that back, having pondered this for most of the day before convincing himself his youngest son had a valid point. "I know that bastard took advantage when she couldn't defend herself, but I think maybe part of her… the subconscious part… knew what happened. She had nightmares for months afterward," he explained. "Dreams that didn't make any sense… a man with dark eyes coming into our bedroom to take the baby away from her. I just chalked it up to the problems and stress she had with getting pregnant and thought all that would go away after Jamie was born. It did for the most part, but maybe there was more. Maybe in some way she knew what Milner did and was afraid of him… and that fear is why she was so relieved in the elevator that the baby looked like Joe and what continued throughout Jamie's life. It explains why she was so adamant about steering him away from the job. We _did _treat him differently because of it," he acknowledged.

"Maybe," his father agreed as he sat back and considered the possibility now that his son had dialed it back to not being Mary's fault again. "And that's a hard thing to swallow, isn't it? So, what are you going to say to him if he ever asks? Admitting that might not make it better going forward," he warned. "He always just wanted to be the same as Danny and Joe."

"I know," Frank admitted. "But if I'm truthful, I'd have to say I never thought he was, and neither did his mother... not because he was more or less than his brothers and sister, just different... more sensitive. Maybe by the time he came of age, I had seen enough on the job to know how it that could change a person and I was afraid it would wear down the things that I admire most about him."

"Or you needed him to be that way… because those things were wearing down on you too," Henry noted.

"Could be," Frank answered honestly. "And maybe later it gave me something to brag on. Every time someone would ask about Jamie before this, I could puff out my chest a little and take some credit for it… to say _my _son was the high school valedictorian or a top graduate of Harvard Law, and now first in the NYPD sergeant's test… some of the things I've never been myself. They say parents try to live vicariously through their children, right?"

"They also say pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall," Henry quoted.

"Or something like that," Frank conceded with a heavy sigh.

"It's a tough thing for a man to give up, even though it shouldn't matter," his father acknowledged. "I know I do the same whenever someone talks about you following my path as PC, but the others have done well enough for themselves… you have Erin," he offered kindly. "Don't forget that. Aces at Columbia and Fordham… hardly something to sneeze at."

"She's Mary's through and through," Frank differed as he had always taken comfort in the fact that his daughter favored her mother so closely. "Danny was one of the youngest detectives ever to make first-grade," he reminded his father in an effort to prove there were other familial feathers in his cap.

"No, he's all mine, sorry," Henry disagreed to keep things light and encouraging. "A tough Irish mutt full of piss and vinegar."

"So that just leaves Joe and Jamie… I really thought I shared some of the credit there."

"Well, you do, and because of that, you can still say those things about Jamie," Henry assured. "He _is _your son, Francis, no matter how he came to be here, and you did more during his life than just write a few checks for an Ivy League school. The boy was raised right, and no one else has to know the rest of it. Are you going to tell me you're less proud of those things now?"

"No, I'm just… oh hell, I don't even know what I'm thinking anymore," Frank admitted as he finished the last drop of that special bottle, finally tipsy enough to consider turning into bed for a few hours in what had become the norm for the past week.

"I do. You're just wishing he was here tonight sitting on the couch watching this lousy game and sharing a beer with his old man… you miss that, and you're worried because of all this it might not happen again."

"There's that too."

"The boy will come around," Henry reassured. "This was a lot for him to take in, but pretty soon he's going to realize what we all know… that you're his dad, and you always will be. Family's all any of us have, plus we have Eddie on our side now," he winked, having already been apprised of her plans to make Jamie realize that. "And I know for a fact that girl isn't going to let us down."

* * *

_Henry's right, Jamie will eventually come good, and they have an ace in the hole in Eddie who will use an old case to nudge him in the right direction. Even with that, their upcoming Sunday dinner might be even emptier than either of them anticipated though as William Milner continues to make life difficult for the Reagan family._


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"So, you want to tell me why we're back here, Ed?" Jamie sighed after she stopped the car in front of a small, nondescript park on 48th between Eighth and Ninth near their old stomping grounds at the 12th Precinct late that Sunday morning. After a few more days of enforced rest at home following the hospital stay had him climbing the walls out of boredom on top of all the stress, he had agreed to be chauffeured around in the back seat again, against his better judgment, fully expecting that despite adamant denials he was being kidnapped for a trip to the Reagan family home on Harbor View Terrace in Bay Ridge instead.

"Why are you always so suspicious?"

"Occupational hazard."

"I just thought it'd be fun," Eddie returned as she glanced in the rearview mirror and spotted his glum expression, still worried over the fact he hadn't verbally committed one way or the other to going to Sunday dinner later although she had pressed hard first thing this morning. Beyond that, he had not initiated any further direct contact with the family even though she had been sure to replace his phone and activate it soon after Frank left on Friday.

Despite the desired result with the grand jury later that day which saw William Milner skillfully indicted on five first-degree counts by Erin, there had yet to be any joy in actually serving the arrest warrant although Anthony and Danny had been on the hunt across the city almost nonstop since then. Maureen Saunders had indeed held true to her word, and although she had followed up with a blistering exposé against the doctor on the evening broadcast detailing her own personal journey, it was without a direct reference to the Reagan family name and did not throw any shade on Erin or the DA's office. No one had been able to locate the wayward Milner though, and with each hour that passed, Eddie grew more concerned at Jamie's seeming indifference to the lack of news regarding the fugitive's whereabouts and likewise nervous that somehow this would lead directly back to her fiancé before long. Desperate to help him deal with some of this emotional baggage before anyone heaped any more onto the pile, she had spent the better part of the day Saturday doing some investigative work of her own while he slept, and this side trip was a direct result.

"I'm not really in the mood for fun, Ed," he confessed with a depressed groan and glanced around the familiar territory where he had once been such an enthusiastic young rookie and patrol officer. _Those were the days, _he thought ruefully as the reveal regarding Milner had dented more than the sterling Reagan crest on his armor, and with it his perceived place within the family as well as the NYPD, but also had him seriously rethinking whether or not he had indeed ever been destined to be a cop at all.

"You said you wanted to get outside, so I figured we could take a short walk here," she replied sweetly, anyway, although he was right of course, she was up to her batting eyelashes in ulterior motives as the few uninspiring, bleak, empty basketball courts and a single occupied little league-sized baseball diamond of the tiny city park revealed from behind a rusting fence.

"Here?" he snorted considering the chilly weather, the distance from their apartment and the dozens, if not hundreds, of other vastly nicer venues they had passed on the way over.

"Yes," she asserted and opened the car door, signifying her determination to see this through. "Maybe you'll feel like eating after you get some fresh air," she added pointedly with an obvious reference to that upcoming dinner. "Nothing like being back in the old neighborhood, is there? Brings back good memories."

"You're so full of it, Edit Janko, and there wasn't anything good that ever happened on this block, except…" he trailed off, suddenly recalling eerily similar events from a certain call back in his early patrol days involving Vinny and a little dark-haired five-year-old boy named Kyle running out into traffic wearing a bloody shirt and no coat in weather similar to this. "Who told you about that? Was it Dad?" he demanded, suddenly aware of exactly what she was doing. "Of course, it was! He couldn't help himself, and neither can you! He had no right!"

"Not sure what you're talking about, Jameson," she tried her best to continue the farce and draw it out of him even though he wasn't buying into this anymore. "Told you about what?"

"Nothing," he clammed up, crossed his arms and refused to play along or get out of the backseat for the matter.

"Aw, c'mon," she begged after leaning over and tapping on the window until he finally relented and rolled it down so they could continue the conversation. "He was just trying to help, and a little credit, please? Your Dad gave me a name, Kyle Jimenez, but nothing else. I had to do all the legwork on my own."

"Yeah, right."

"What I found out," she continued to tell the story on her own as he remained resolutely silent. "Was that you and Vinny rescued a little boy that ran away from home around here without his parents even realizing it for hours because they were having a big fight… a fight about a man named Ted. He was a plumber, right? Someone the wife pretended would come around and fix things so that he could see his biological son without her husband knowing about it."

"Why are you doing this, Ed?" Jamie moaned in frustration. _"This _is nothing like that," he lied since the similarities to his own situation were glaring. "And none of that was in the report," he continued to stare coldly straight ahead into the headrest and wondered how she had managed to uncover all these details considering both Linda and Vinny were long gone, cursing himself once more for his role in that whole debacle now that the shoe, or more appropriately, the DNA test, was on the other foot.

"Look, I get that you're trying to help, but this isn't going to… _trust _me."

_"Try _me," she persisted.

"Okay, so you really want to know the truth about that case?" he continued, triggered now while she skillfully waited for him to let some of this go. "I totally screwed it up... I got emotionally attached to the kid and thought I had all the answers, just like always," he admitted with regret as those doubts in his so-called inherent ability grew while he recalled the trip to St. Victor's Hospital with the little boy that followed. That event was indelibly ingrained in his memory, as was the encounter there with his trusted late sister-in-law in her finest caregiving capacity.

_"Just gonna feel a little stick. Ready?" nurse Linda Reagan had gently prepared the frightened little boy clinging tightly to her brother-in-law's neck even though he jumped with a little "Aah!" when his finger was pricked before she quickly rubbed it to take the sting away. "It's okay," she soothed._

_"Thanks for seeing us, Linda," a much younger Jamie had sighed in relief as those little arms were locked in a vice grip around his neck so tight that they threatened to cut off his airway. "He's been so freaked out. I knew you could keep him calm."_

_"Ah, you're doing a pretty good job yourself," she smiled back while walking to the counter to run a snap test, well aware that the young officer was a known kid magnet for a very good reason, having been a trusted and attentive uncle to Sean and Jack since they were babies. _

_"Where's Child Services?" she inquired. _

_"Oh, they're out in the lobby," Jamie added as he continued to rock the boy and comfort him on autopilot. "He screamed bloody murder when they tried to take him."_

_"But someone's trying to locate his family, right?" Linda asked, admittedly more than a little half-worried that a small guest might be joining them at Sunday dinner from now on otherwise._

_"Yeah, Vin took a cell phone picture. He's canvassing the neighborhood where we found him."_

_"Good," she added in relief before puzzling over the results of the test. "Well, here's another mystery to add to this little guy. The blood on his shirt? That's not his blood," she whispered. "When I cleaned him up, I didn't find a scratch or a cut on him, so I tested his blood and the blood on the shirt. It's two different types. Got someone else's blood on him."_

_"What's this kid seen?" Jamie wondered._

_"Try asking him."_

_"Hey, bud, let's try this one more time, okay? Let's go," he reassured as the boy struggled against him. "You're all right. I'm just gonna put you right here on the table. You're totally safe. Okay? I got you. Obviously, somebody told you that if you ever had a problem, you should find the nearest police officer. That's why you ran up to me, right? Yeah? But I can't help you solve it unless you talk to me. Okay? So, you need to be really brave. I told you that my name is Jamie._

_What's your name?"_

"He told me his name was Kyle," Jamie remembered dejectedly in the present as he finished. "I said that I thought it was a cool name."

"It _is _a cool name," Eddie puzzled at his response. "You did a good thing and took him home… made sure he was safe first. That's the job, and it turned out fine, didn't it? That's why I brought you here. I wanted you to see that."

"No, you don't know the whole story, Ed! This is one I messed up really bad, something I regret to this day, and now even more because I know exactly how it feels," he admitted and remembered the discussion that followed with Nicky, Sean and Jack at the dinner table that same week. "It's karma," he murmured and glanced over at her with pain evident in his eyes.

"What goes around comes around to bite you in the ass, right?"

"How so?" she pried, having thought this walk down memory lane might bolster his frayed emotions given the eventual results, but concerned now that she had opened up a Pandora's box of bad mojo instead and wondering why Frank Reagan would have steered her towards all this in the first place given his son's reaction.

"The parents were fighting like you said, really getting into it about this Ted guy. The husband, Raul, was jealous and even busted open his hand on something," Jamie recalled with clarity. "That's where the blood on Kyle's shirt came from and why he ran after they put him in his room; they said he hated loud voices. I went back to the apartment a couple of days later after shift when Linda told me the blood types O and AB were incompatible for a father and son, and that Raul couldn't be Kyle's just like me and Dad now…" he trailed off uncomfortably and then quick-shifted the focus over to his own current issues. "Eddie, why didn't I ever figure this out before? I should have, right? So, what kind of cop does that make me? Maybe I could have saved that Matthew Bastien kid! His father wouldn't have killed him like that if he had known the truth. Ed, I knew what all this meant six years ago, and never put it together!"

"Why would you?" she asked, taken aback by that turn. "Jamie, I know right now you feel like you have to be mad at someone, but instead of focusing on Milner, who's really at fault, you're looking for a reason to blame yourself for this. I don't understand that, because you had no reason to doubt anything… no one did. You have a Norman Rockwell family, and most people who do don't go around looking for something like this. Neither of your parents suspected a thing, did they? I think that's why it's been such a shock to everyone. I mean, my dad's been living a double life most of mine, so if this happened to me, I'd probably be more like, 'oh, of course, I have a half-brother or -sister'… or even a bunch of them," she chuckled and tried to lighten his mood even though that last part of that statement wasn't amusing.

"That must be a tough way to have to look at the world," he returned sullenly. Of course, the fact that something like this was so far off the radar of the Reagan family landscape made it even worse. "You're right though; I never had to worry about my parents like that… their marriage always seemed so solid. Just hearing that my mother met with someone like that Vintner guy without Dad knowing about it at first, even if it was nothing more than to talk, shocked the hell out of me."

"Well, _my _mom said it prepared me for 'life's rich pageant,'" Eddie acknowledged with a smirk before growing serious once more. "And that little Bastien boy's death is definitely not on you. That was just the universe coming together in a horrible way. I know you're sad about that now too because you feel protective like an older brother even though you didn't know him, and he was more of a victim than anyone else, but you can't save them all. I think maybe you managed to do that for Kyle though," she encouraged and tried to gently redirect him back to the whole reason they were there in the first place, but he still wasn't ready to let it go. "And I know this is all raw, and you're still hurting, but I thought it might help if you saw that situations like this could sometimes work themselves out in a good way."

"What _I _still see is someone who thought he was a hot-shot, blue-blooded cop with all the answers… someone who completely screwed things up the first time for Kyle and should have figured it out for himself long before all this happened and another three-year-old boy had to die. It's a simple black-and-white fact, Ed… AB plus O doesn't equal AB. That's the kind of stuff I'm _supposed _to be good at, remember? I'm the rules guy with an Ivy League education and a damn near eidetic memory who just failed basic Bio 101," he stubbornly clung to a point he had been berating himself with for the past few days while continuing to compare himself against his siblings. That feeling of inferiority that had haunted him nearly all his life was had increased exponentially now that he knew about Milner and his genetic contribution, or rather, the lack of such influence Frank Reagan might have actually had.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Start second-guessing yourself."

"Maybe I should! Nothing I thought was true before really is, and everyone else was right except me! I _am _different. All my life…" he paused and choked up. "All my life, I thought Mom and Dad were wrong for keeping me off the job… that I was really just as good as Danny and Joe, but no one else could see me that way because I was book smart too. It turns out I was wrong all along about everything, and what Danny said at that hostage call… that I overthink before I act because rules matter to me more than results… maybe he's right about that too. He saved that guard, not me! I told myself I was just following protocol, but maybe I gave him that command discipline because I got pissed at watching him show me up again. I don't even know anymore!"

"Jamie, please stop! You're spiraling because of everything that happened this week, and you're mixing it up too much," Eddie added out of concern for his state which was getting hard to follow in a straight line and still seemed to be headed miles away from her original point in coming here.

"None of that stuff is connected, so just breathe and try to take one thing at a time. The hostage call is over. Honestly, I know by now deep down you realize that both you and Danny were right and wrong on that. He overstepped and maybe got lucky that the second bullet didn't hit anyone else or we could be talking about something entirely different, but thankfully it ended with no one except the perp, and okay, _you, _getting hurt," she admitted with emphasis. "That was a fluke though, and you shouldn't have made it personal. Even so, do you actually think your brother is worried about any of that right now? He's not," she answered her own question before giving him a chance to reply. "I've talked to both Danny and Erin even if you haven't. He wants to make sure you're okay, and he's busting a gut to find Milner so that he pays for what he did to you and your mom, or before he hurts anyone else. I guarantee Danny's ready to let it go as long as you are."

"But maybe I can't because I'm too 'emotionally vested'… at least that's what Mom called it," Jamie countered, and instead of taking his fiancée's advice, just added another layer and someone else's opinion to the pot of why he had never really been up to the Reagan standard. "She always said I wasn't like him… that I was too sensitive to be a good cop. My brother can focus on things and get over stuff like this without getting bogged down in all that. So does Erin, so did Joe… just like Dad and Pop, and I can't."

"That's not true either, _and _your Dad lives by rules. If anything, you're _more _like him than anyone else. Maybe you wanted to prove that by giving Danny a writeup because you've taken a few of them on the chin from the PC just for being a Reagan. Plus, he's your older brother, so, honey, _of course_, there's gonna be some sibling rivalry there. I understand that, and I don't even have one I know of, remember?" she paused with raised eyebrows to give him a second to absorb that fact before continuing to try to put all these separate pieces back together again. "Yes, you're a rules guy, and that's okay," she insisted. "Yes, your brother thinks and does things differently, and that's all right too. Stop comparing yourself to him! Now that you're a sergeant, that's going to overlap sometime, and the two of you need to figure it out, but in the end, you're both good cops trying to help people, each in your own way."

"I just don't know what to think anymore, Ed," Jamie reiterated as he shook his head, rocked on almost every emotional front except for his faith in their relationship—something he was clinging to now. "And none of that explains why I messed the rest of this up so bad. Maybe I wasn't a good cop back then because I sure don't feel like one right now either."

* * *

_This was originally one chapter, but it ended up running too long, so was split and will continue with a Tuesday update on to keep things moving as Jamie struggles internally with the notion that he's not a full-blooded Reagan. Also not sure what to make of his comment about Eddie having a dead brother in the season 9 finale, or if that will ever be addressed again, so keeping on with the premise of her as an only child here as it was originally written._


	17. Chapter 17

_Sorry for the later than promised posting. FF was being buggy yesterday!_

* * *

Chapter 17

_"I just don't know what to think anymore, Ed," Jamie reiterated as he shook his head, rocked on almost every emotional front except for his faith in their relationship—something he was clinging to now. "And none of that explains why I messed the rest of this up so bad. Maybe I wasn't a good cop back then because I sure don't feel like one right now either."_

"So, you overlooked something with the blood type even though you dealt with the same thing with Kyle before, but _everyone _in your family missed that, _and _they had more information!" Eddie insisted, continuing her run and still trying to make him see through all his flawed logic. "They got tested for your Mom while you were away at school and knew what your Dad's type was before you did too. And maybe you inherited more from her, and Danny gets his ways from your father and Pop, but it doesn't matter, does it? Genetics is a crapshoot anyway, even for full siblings. Lambchop, I'm gonna say it again… you're the exact same person you were before any of this started."

"I wish I could believe that, Ed."

"I wish you would," she returned softly. "I think you _will _once you give in and accept that… don't forget your family; they're all the same as they were before too. They love you and need to see that you're okay. This has been really hard on your Dad especially," she warned and purposefully kept referring to Frank Reagan as such in an effort to drive home that point. "I'm sure he's having all the same regrets about not being there for your mom or figuring this out before."

"No, he really sucks at Biology even if the book's open right in front of him," Jamie admitted and remembered an incident from his childhood almost fondly with the first little hint of forgiveness evident in his voice. "One time when I was in ninth grade and she wasn't home, I missed a week of school because I was sick with the flu and there was a big test coming up. I was in the advanced science class so none of my friends could help and it was on all this kind of genetic crap. I asked him a question about fruit flies, and he mixed me up so bad I got a C and Mom was mad. She said he was never allowed to help me with homework again."

"The horror," Eddie kidded, glad to see a just little of the old Jamie spark finally return.

"It was a dark time," he quipped before growing serious again. "Ed, I didn't even remember what my own type was before we did that blood drive at the 12th a couple of years ago and the guy who took mine mentioned it," he continued sadly and admittedly tried to process all this on multiple fronts while the doubts he was having about his place in the family, and the blue-blooded skills he once believed to be inherited intersected. "When he said that I didn't pay much attention and just figured it was the same as Mom. I never asked what Dad's was though, and don't know why I thought the Jimenez situation was any of my business either! I should have stayed out of it!"

"Jamie, it's what you do… why you're _are _a good cop, and you do have good instincts! You were concerned for the boy's safety and care enough to follow up on stuff like that," Eddie tried to assure. "Getting invested when it's a kid… that's part of the job too."

"Yeah? I always thought so, but that doesn't make what I did right. I had second thoughts about leaving Kyle with them and convinced myself I needed to confront his mother because I knew better than she did. Raul had admitted to losing his cool, so I was scared he would do something to the boy because they were already fighting and I couldn't imagine him hearing something like that and not going off… and he did, right there, because of me. He heard us talking from the doorway. That's how Kyle found out Ted was his real father, and _I _did that, Eddie," he teared up with the magnitude of that responsibility hitting home hard once more given the anger he had been holding against everyone else, and his father in particular, for the very same thing. "It was even worse than the way Dad told me. Raul was going to move out. He said it wasn't his home anymore and said he was pissed at the world, Ted, his so-called lying bitch of a wife, but me mostly. I tried to stop him, but I heard that they split up a few months later, anyway. I'm the one that ruined their family! They must hate me! He probably told you to bring me here so he could kick my ass! Kyle lost the only father he ever knew, just like…"

"That's _not _what happened," Eddie stopped him on that point in particular. "And you will not lose anyone over this, I promise. _I _heard that you reminded Raul none of this was Kyle's fault, just like _none _of this is yours or your Dad's, and that driving away and forgetting about his family would only punish the wrong people. Those words are true, and they stuck," she encouraged and pointed to the man and boy in the distant batting cage. "And someone wanted to thank you for them when I called to find out what all this was about."

"Ed," he hesitated in guilt as he looked over and the reason behind this trip became clear. "What am I supposed to say to them now?"

"Nothing, maybe just listen… I mean obviously say hello and all that, don't act like a freak, but Jamie, I didn't tell them anything about what you're going through; I wouldn't do that. I did say I was following up because you were having a tough time with a similar case, and as soon as I mentioned that, Raul asked if we could meet. I wanted you to see the other side of this so you can understand how your Dad feels and why this is really going to be okay. That's why we're here. Now c'mon, we've kept them waiting long enough."

"Hey, Dad! Look! It's Officer Reagan! They're here!" Kyle Jimenez eagerly shouted and dropped his baseball glove down on the pitching mound before running over to greet Jamie and Eddie as they approached. "He told me you were coming!" the enthusiastic young boy lisped with a smile missing several noticeable gaps of baby teeth as most eleven-year-old boys had. "Wanna see me pitch?" he asked while lobbing over a ball with all his strength that barely made the short distance between them.

"I'm gonna try out for a real team and everything this year, so Dad says I have to practice a lot!"

"Hey, Kyle," Jamie offered a big, involuntary smile for the first time in days as he easily caught the slow-pitched baseball one-handed. "Yeah? That's really cool. I was a shortstop back when I was your age, so maybe we can run some infield plays, and I can show you how to pick off a runner at second."

"Or maybe you can stand here right next to this fence, Jameson, and _watch _while I play catch with him instead," Eddie immediately put the kibosh on that idea, considering the fact he was under strict orders for no physical exertion whatsoever until cleared medically. "I think Officer Reagan forgot that I was a shortstop on my softball team all the way through high school too, so I know what I'm doing. Besides, he's on the injured reserve list," she explained to Kyle in baseball terms just as Raul was walking up to join them. "He got a boo-boo trying to tackle a big guy at a robbery the other day, and he's not allowed on the field for a while."

"That stinks," Kyle frowned.

"Yeah, it kinda does," Jamie agreed as he reluctantly handed the ball over, knowing it was her intention to have him talk to Raul, anyway —something he would have rather avoided altogether much like that looming family dinner, the decision on whether to attend or not already upon him as the hour was growing late and they should really be on their way in the next few minutes to make it to Bay Ridge on time.

"Okay, just take it easy on her, Kyle," he conceded, deciding to push that off and remain here, for now, to face this hopefully less contentious music instead. "She's got a wedding coming up. I'd hate for her to be sporting the Marsha Brady look in the pictures."

"Haha," Eddie rebuked, also content to be late if necessary as she knew Jamie needed this first. "And I bet he doesn't even know what that means, smarty-pants. C'mon, Kyle… we'll show him!" she remarked and then started towards the mound while mouthing a silent "Thank you" to the boy's father as they passed and exchanged a well-worn catcher's glove.

"Officer Reagan," Raul Jimenez greeted him in a voice and demeanor that was much different from the last time the two had met outside of that apartment building as the other man was loading his belongings intending to leave his family. "It's good to see you again."

"It is? I mean it is, of course," Jamie answered a little off guard as he reached out to shake hands. "And it's Sergeant Reagan now. I'm sorry; I guess I wasn't sure…" he trailed off while biting his lip and looking across the field to where Kyle and Eddie were starting to toss the ball. "I mean I heard that you and Kyle's mother broke up not long after all that, and I…"

"Felt guilty for the way it happened? Don't," Raul assured as he turned around and stood alongside the fence watching his son play. "It was for the best."

"I don't understand how you could say that," Jamie admitted quietly with his newfound perspective still coming sharply into play. "If I hadn't…"

"If you hadn't done it, then I would have found out another way. Hell, that's not true, I already knew, I just hadn't forced it out of her yet," Raul confessed. "I wanted to though. In fact, if you hadn't brought Kyle home to us when you did, it would have gotten ugly right then. We were really getting into it. I'm ashamed of that. I lost my temper and put a fist through the wall in front of my son, that's where the blood on his shirt came from, not from a dropped glass like I told you. It could have been worse though. I _never _hit a woman in my life then or since," he emphasized. "But I was damn close that time… a lot closer than I ever shoulda been. I know you saw that and it's why you came back, right? I thank God every day that you did. If Angela had come straight out and told me about Ted without anyone else there… I'd probably be in jail now, or worse," he reflected. "You don't know how angry something like that can make you… I felt like it ripped a hole in my chest."

"Yeah, um… I can imagine that was tough," Jamie agreed sadly, again without revealing that he did indeed know exactly how hard it was to hear such news and feel such an ache.

"More than tough, it puts you out of your mind," Raul corrected as he continued to relay his own experience without any knowledge about the current Reagan family circumstances. "All I saw was red. Kyle mighta lost both of us, and Ted woulda ended up with him fulltime, anyway."

"Fulltime? So, he's…?"

"Yeah, him and Angela got together after we split. We co-parent now, I guess that's what you call it, but if you hadn't stopped me from leaving that day…" he trailed off shaking his head and remembering that conversation before smiling at his son's cries of triumph and Eddie's over-the-top victory dance at his finally getting the ball all the way from the mound to the plate.

_"Moving out? Jamie had pestered after walking down the street that afternoon only to find Raul stuffing his remaining belongings in the back of a small, silver SUV._

_"This ain't my home anymore," had come the gruff reply from the emotional man with eyes rimmed red from crying._

_"I know you're pissed at the world," Jamie had tried to counter._

_"The world?" Raul scoffed as he stood up and became more openly defensive. "Try YOU! And Ted! And that lying bitch inside!"_

_"What about Kyle?" _

_"This ain't his fault!"_

_"Then why are you punishing him?" Jamie demanded as that question caused Raul to turn around and face the young boy peering through the first-floor apartment window. "'Cause if you get in this car, and you drive away, that's what you're doing… forgetting about your family," he pointed out._

_"My family was a lie!" Raul spat back._

_"Not in that boy's mind," Jamie had tried hard to convince before turning to leave after some final thoughts. "You're the only father that he's ever known. So, sure, he can get to know Ted. Maybe he should. But you're his dad; you always will be. Family's all any of us have. Maybe you can find a way to keep his together."_

"We did find a way," Raul mused, back in the present even as Jamie felt a lump growing in his own throat at those words which hit hard now like no time other, and suddenly he wanted to find a way to say them to his own father—a man who no doubt was feeling the same right now and never in a million lifetimes would have ever so much as thought about turning away from a son he had loved as his own since before he was born.

"I woulda left the best thing in my life behind," the other man continued. "You told me not to punish Kyle and forget about my family, well, I never did after that. Maybe his mother and I didn't work things out, but we talked instead of yelling when I finally left, and I got to keep being his dad. I love that boy more than anything; I'd _die _for him even though he's not mine that way," he choked up with emphasis. "And I always wanted to stop by and thank you for that, but I never had the balls, so when your lady called, I figured this was about due. She said you were having a tough time with a case like ours… it was that bastard Ricky Bastien up on 52nd, wasn't it?" he added as an afterthought that hit much closer to home than Jamie expected.

"Oh, uh, yeah… it, um has to do with that," he admitted truthfully without revealing many other details. "Some stuff came up this week and kinda opened that case back up again."

"Figured… it was big news around here a while back. I knew him from school," Raul declared. "Always was a damn prick when it came to women. Should have given him the needle instead of life. When I heard about what he did to his wife and kid though… I gave thanks it wasn't me, you know? 'Cause like I said, it coulda been if it hadn't been for you, and admitting that still scares the living shit out of me."

"Yeah," Jamie admitted as he thought about the past week. "I… it's been a rough one. I guess I still don't have my head straight about it. Eddie said she wanted me to see something like this that turned out better to help me get over it."

"Sounds like a good woman."

"Yes, she is," Jamie agreed and then laughed aloud once again as he watched his fiancée drop down into a near-full split with a dramatic shriek while missing a low ball sliding across the far corner.

"So, Ted," he continued to puzzle as he tried to process that improbable arrangement which by all appearances was working given the happy, confident child he was watching on the field.

"He's really okay with it too?"

"Yeah. Angela laid down the law before they got together again," Raul explained. "She told him my name was on the papers, and I was gonna keep my rights, or the door was gonna hit him on the ass on the way out. We figured out how to do it after a while. He helps the kid with homework and that sort of shit but can't throw a ball if his life depended on it, sort of like Kyle," he admitted with a laugh as he watched the continued, albeit slow progress as Eddie was demonstrating her own unique technique. "I guess I know where that came from now. He lives with them mostly because it's a better neighborhood than I can afford and calls us both dad… has a little sister now too. I pick him up on the weekends or after school and get to do the fun stuff. He might not end up in the big leagues, but that's his dream right now so I'll let him try, what the hell, right? And Ted's a plumber, you know, so he's got the college bills covered in case this don't work out," he chuckled again given that improbability. "My kid has a good life," he declared. "And, so do I... got married a couple of years ago to a great woman, and she treats him like her own. We're happy."

"So, it really worked out? I'm glad, man," Jamie acknowledged as he felt a great weight lift off his shoulders, and finally sensed some peace descending within his own heart. It was apparent Kyle and Raul shared a strong father-son bond that had been maintained in the years since that shocking discovery in spite of difficult circumstances, much as he had with his own dad. It was just a matter of finding a way to put those pieces back together again. That was still proving to be difficult though as even with this encouragement, the last week had been emotionally draining, and he still wasn't quite up to the task of facing the family yet with so much unresolved.

"It helps to know that though. Thanks for meeting us here."

"Likewise," Raul reciprocated as they continued to watch while Eddie and Kyle kept up with their game with no obvious intention of quitting. "You know what they say about blood being thicker than water?" he mused. "That's bullshit. This is the only thing that matters," he continued with a nod and a knowing smile. "Looks like you need one of these of your own. Kyle really likes her. I don't think you're getting out of here anytime soon."

"Yeah," Jamie agreed even as he thought about the meaning behind that statement which had often been discussed around a certain blue-blooded table. Another glance at his watch showed there was very little time to spare if they were going to make dinner on time. Despite that, with no clear plan in his head on how to approach anyone in the family just yet, he decided to put off the inevitable for a little longer, anyway.

"That's okay; we're in no rush," he murmured, and for the first time allowed himself to contemplate what it was going to be like to walk back in that door on Harbor View Terrace—something he had no way of knowing might never happen at all given the events that were about to occur.

* * *

_Progress! Poor Jamie, he's right on the edge of being able to deal with some of this, but still not quite there. Speaking of being edgy, that's exactly the word to describe Danny at the moment as Anthony can attest while the two seasoned detectives and nemeses try to put their differences aside to find Milner before he can destroy that now-fragile brotherly relationship forever._


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"DAMN IT! Doesn't TARU understand we're in kind of a rush here? What the hell is taking them so long? WE NEED TO FIND THIS SON OF A BITCH!" Detective Daniel Reagan slammed his hands down on the wheel in frustration while sitting in some sluggish late Sunday morning Manhattan traffic just south of Central Park after running up against what appeared to be yet another dead end. A glance at his watch confirmed what he already knew—that time was ticking down for what promised to be another potentially life-altering Reagan family Sunday dinner given that this now 48-hour plus search for William Milner was still dragging on. No one seemed sure yet if Jamie was planning to attend, but Danny knew that he couldn't personally chance not showing up at all if his younger brother did make that leap, even if he had no answers here.

"All they got is a plate reader hit in this area Friday morning, and nothing on the cameras in an eight-block radius showing the car leaving since then… we've got five guys working overtime on it rechecking the film and searching all the parking structures," Anthony reminded as he too had more than his fill after a few days of sitting in close quarters with an overly-agitated Reagan and little else to go on. "He's gotta be here, or someone else knows where that Mercedes is. This prick seems to have expensive tastes considering all the charges on his AmEx before this, so I say he only goes top shelf. Let's try shaking down another valet at the Plaza or hit the desk manager. Their shifts just changed; maybe we'll get lucky."

"We did that twice already. He could have just as easily parked in an underground deck and changed tags to throw us a red herring before heading for the airport," Danny griped, his suspicions raised that the not-so-good-doctor had been tipped off. "I mean why come here that morning, the goddamn surveillance cam capital of the world, just to disappear? It doesn't make sense unless he knew you were gonna be waiting for him at the office and got spooked."

"Yeah, but how? That was before the grand jury even indicted him. After all these years of getting away with it, he should have been a sitting duck there. I had a team ready to go!"

"Take one guess, or should I say fifteen?" Danny returned irritably. "Seems like she's got a name for every other day of the month."

"You still believe that nurse had somethin' to do with it," Anthony reasoned even though he didn't necessarily share that conviction and had expressed that sentiment several times already.

"Yes, I think Rita, aka I've-been-covering-this-ass's-ass-for-the-last-thirty-plus-years Begley had something to do with this. C'mon, any detective I know who's been on the job more than twenty minutes would realize that!" Danny goaded in frustration. "Milner knew we were onto him and came up here to check into a fancy hotel somewhere under an assumed name to wait us out. Who else but a cocky bastard like that is going to drop a grand or more a night when you live a half an hour away, even on a doctor's salary?"

"But we put a trace on his credit cards and both of their phone records after we picked her up… nothin' there to prove she gave him a heads up or that he spent a dime in this district since then."

"Ever hear of cash?"

"And any detective I worked with would know that would stick out like a sore thumb around here!" Anthony grunted as he returned the insult. "We canvassed all the front desks looking for him! No one pays with greenbacks anymore!"

"Except for someone trying to hide, right Abracadabra? Like your name… a few extra bills and poof! Nobody saw nothing. Besides, there was a burner call to his cell right before he disappeared from home that morning. Erin's still trying to get a warrant to check on that lawyer Begley hired, but the judge isn't having it. My bet is she warned the bastard through him as a last resort. He's her second cousin or something right? Maybe she promised Milner would give him some bucks to pay the legal fees… that or she's even sicker in the head than I thought and thinks she can still protect him," Danny growled. "Who would defend someone like that otherwise? It doesn't matter, anyway. Milner's phone went dark right after that."

"Look, I get that this is personal, but pretty soon we're gonna have to admit he's in the wind," Anthony warned, his patience for any of this having expired with that final reference to his last name.

"PERSONAL? It's more than that!" Danny growled before pulling over to park alongside the sidewalk, growing angrier once more at the thought. "It was my own mother he did this to! And now he's screwing with my kid brother! I haven't even talked to him about this yet, none of us have! He's shut down! How the hell am I supposed to look him in the eye and tell him I gave up after a couple of days? We're already…" he trailed off before admitting that relationship was still in a bad way. "I just gotta keep trying. So far Erin's been able to keep this under wraps. No one knows that Jamie's a part of this except us right now, but if Milner's still out there…"

"Then he's got his back against the wall, so maybe he uses it against your family for some kinda blackmail or another way out," Anthony added as he sat up and the two seasoned detectives began to piece things together. What they would eventually come to suspect as Milner's true motive was far worse than anyone had first imagined. "I can't see him not recognizing your father, even after all these years. He met him in the office first before deciding to target your mother, right? The man's six-four with a voice you don't forget, plus he's been all over the news for years and makes a lasting impression, don't he? I think Milner knows damn well who the Commissioner is and what that means. I bet you a pastrami sandwich that calculating son-of-a-bitch kept track of his conquests all along. Probably got off on it."

"Jesus, you could be right about that," Danny admitted anxiously as his heart began to race, suddenly now more worried for his brother's safety as that wrinkle had not occurred to him before with everything else going on. The thought of this perverted man somehow watching from afar in the shadows all these years without their knowledge while Jamie grew up was disturbing enough to turn his stomach into knots and make this search even more desperate.

"Erin thinks he did this out of some kind of God complex… for the power, not the sex. We're trying to take that away from him now, and he knows it. What if he somehow targets the kids to take it back? Maybe we're looking at this all wrong, and he's not hiding out up here but buying time!"

"Then wouldn't he go after that Maureen Saunders woman first for outing him? She ran that report on Friday detailing everything she went through to find him. That had to piss this guy off. They're already talking about nominating it for some big investigative news award. She's been all over the freaking news too since then, and if he's been watching, he knows where to find her."

"Yeah, he might," Danny agreed as he put the car in gear and floored it to make a U-turn against traffic before the light changed. "The other ones we know of really had nothing to do with this except that Bastien kid and he's already gone. Jamie and Maureen would have to be top on his list. I think Erin said she lives in an apartment somewhere over on 9th near the New York 1 studio. Damn it! Why didn't we think of this before? That's only a few blocks away from here! Bastard could have walked there in five minutes, even in his sixties! I just hope we're not too late!"

###

"What? Is everyone making a habit out of this now?" Nicky whined and rolled her eyes with an accompanying frustrated sigh directed towards her grandfather as she paused to count the empty seats around the table which now equaled those that were occupied. "One, two, three, four," she pointed out the apparent absentees to Frank, Sean, and Henry.

"Please tell me we don't have to wait until _all _of them get here to eat," her cousin chimed in as his stomach growled audibly. "Because I haven't seen my Dad in like three days… Grandpa put him on a case," he revealed out of a hunger-induced frustration despite a promise to keep that detail mum. "I bet Uncle Jamie found out about it, and Aunt Erin is probably over at his place trying to talk him down."

"Sean," Henry tittered in a warning tone. "That's not what this is about."

"Can't we change the statute of limitations on how long we have to wait till they get here to eat?" the protest continued, anyway.

"No, we're not!" his great-grandfather huffed. "You guys know the rules. We don't begin until the entire family is present!"

"That is the best-looking salad I've ever seen," Sean continued moaning.

"What's wrong with you?" his cousin sighed.

"Delirium. It's the first signs of starvation."

"You people really know how to pour it on thick," Henry gruffed.

"Well, if it's not that, has anyone heard from them?" Nicky asked. "Mom's been MIA at the office all week. I've called her ten times, and she hasn't answered, or responded to texts except one telling me what to make for dinner… all of Uncle Jamie's favorites and he's not even here, anyway!"

"No," Frank sighed as he had been struggling with the question of how or if it was better to break the news of the week's events to the two youngest Reagans before Jamie arrived since they remained the only ones still out of the loop. Afraid of the inopportune questions that might arise in the middle of an emotional exchange, he decided to bear the brunt of it himself.

"Nicky, Sean," he started as Henry looked on. "We need to talk about a few things before anyone else gets here."

"What is it, Grandpa?" his granddaughter pressed, rattled by the uncharacteristic goings on at this dinner and worried now that perhaps her uncles would not repair their relationship after what happened at the previous one. "Are Uncle Danny and Jamie still fighting?"

"No, it's not that," Frank replied even though in truth to his knowledge there had not been any progress made on that avenue. "Well, it's a little of that," he corrected. "But not the way you think. There's been some things that happened this week… unexpected things we discovered after your Uncle Jamie had his blood tested in the hospital."

"Wait, he's not really sick or anything, is he?" Nicky's concern mounted given the look on both of her grandfathers' faces which was typically reserved for only the most serious situations.

"No," Henry quickly dismissed that notion. "Jamie's going to be fine," he assured. "It's just that…" he paused with a final sympathetic look at his own son. "It's just that we found out…"

"We found out that I'm not his biological father," Frank took ownership of that shocking fact with the intent of only sharing relevant bits behind why that was so. "It has to do with the case your mother has been working on… the doctor that assaulted some of his patients. I don't want to get into the details, but your grandmother was one of them."

"No way, Grandma?" Sean gaped back, wide-eyed as he imagined his own father's response. "So, that explains why Dad's been on the warpath."

"Milner? The one that's been all over the news?" Nicky likewise gasped as that revelation hit home. "I never miss one of Maureen Saunders's Friday New York 1 reports! She spoke to my communications class last fall after the corruption piece on that black-market adoption agency, and I'm seriously thinking about being an investigative journalist like her! So, she's really Uncle Jamie's half-sister?"

"Yes," Frank swallowed, knowing that Sean's assessment about Danny's response was the honest truth, and hoping his youngest grandchildren would somehow be more forgiving of the circumstances and take them at face value. "And that's been upsetting for your mother as well," he continued with a look at Nicky. "It's been a difficult week for each of us. We have every reason to believe that Jamie and Eddie will be here soon, so I'm asking the two of you to be mindful of that and what you say in front of them. It's going to take some time for everyone to adjust."

"I don't know; I think it'd be pretty cool to have a new brother show up," Sean seemed to be able to defy that expectation and make the leap over it in just a heartbeat.

"How quickly they forget," Henry chuckled given the brotherly spats his two great-grandsons had endured just before Jack left for college.

"No, I just miss the company," Sean admitted truthfully. "And Jack can't be here, so having another brother around my age might not be a bad thing."

"What about a sister?" Nicky asked.

"You already got that covered," her cousin returned since their relationship had always felt more that way.

"Kiddo, some half-brother of yours shows up out of nowhere, I'm gonna have a serious talk with one Daniel Fitzgerald Reagan," Henry assured, before growing more serious. "But this isn't quite like that for your Uncle Jamie or your grandfather, and it's not something to laugh at," he gave Frank another supportive look. "Normally I'd say grab what life tosses you; make the most of it, especially when the surprise is: you got a bigger family. Boil it down; you got one more person you can count on in the end. I mean, who wouldn't be grateful for that? Hmm?"

"Yeah, but even that way?" Nicky wondered.

"Why not?" Sean countered.

"No, not this way," Frank asserted with a sigh and a tap on the table with his fist for emphasis. "This man took advantage of your grandmother, and many other women, and for that, he's going to have to pay. That's on me, and your mother and father to take care of though," he advised the two cousins. "We're going to do everything we can within the law to make sure that happens. But for Jamie, this just came along and upended everything he thought he knew about himself and his place in the family. He's the type that probably didn't want to know about something like that. I'm just saying, someone shows up out of the blue and announces that you're siblings like Maureen Saunders tried to… that's a shock to the system that you don't get over. I know I won't," he admitted honestly. "And that's one bullet I thought we dodged."

"But nothing's changed," Henry cut in and tried to reinforce even though that couldn't be further from the truth as they were about to find out in mere minutes. "We're all still the same family, and we'll get through this together too."

"Hello, hello! Sorry, I'm late!" Erin apologized as she rushed in the back door and to her place at the table, determined to try and soften the news regarding Danny and Anthony's inability to ascertain Milner's whereabouts while fully expecting her younger brother's presence given an earlier conversation. "Danny might be longer because last I heard he was still up in Manhattan, but I thought Eddie said they'd be here by now," she paused before sitting down after noticing the still-empty seats.

"When did you talk to her?" Frank's ears perked up at that confirmation even though Henry had been informed of the same.

"A couple of hours ago," his daughter replied while pulling out her phone. "They were stopping at a park for a few minutes to meet someone, but then they were coming straight here, at least she thought they were," she worried. "Jamie wouldn't give her an answer, but he agreed to go there, so she was pretty sure he'd say yes. You don't think he backed out, do you? I just tried her a few more times, and it went straight to voicemail."

"Mom, no electronics at the table," her daughter reminded her of the usual Sunday dinner etiquette out of habit.

"Except in emergencies," Frank granted a reprieve from the normally steadfast rule. "Try Eddie again, and then get ahold of Danny. I don't care where he's at on the case unless he has Milner in his sights. I need my sons to be here at home! Both of them! It's time for our family to be back together again!"

* * *

_Well, I have to say the S9:16 episode was a godsend that came up mid-story while I was writing and gave me great lines for this Sunday dinner! Yay BB writers! Okay, so it was Anthony with a half-brother, but close enough! I love it when a plan comes together! Ha! Next, Jamie will have his first and last encounter with William Milner, but who will come to the rescue, Danny or someone else? Stay tuned as this story starts to wind down._


	19. Chapter 19

_So sorry for the delay in posting and thanks so much for the reviews. Things have been cray cray here at Chez Werks with a big whole house renovation coming to an end on top of some real work projects due. I've been too pooped to write at all the last few weeks so can't promise more beyond a chapter each Friday. Only three to go after this, still need to finish the last one_!

* * *

Chapter 19

"Miss Saunders? NYPD, we need to speak with you!" Danny's booming voice and persistent knocking echoed down the hall of the upscale, security-conscious and normally well-fortified Manhattan high-rise apartment that Maureen Saunders called home just as Anthony hurried out of the elevator with the building superintendent.

"She's not answering," Danny informed them as he took a step back.

"OPEN IT!" Anthony thundered at the reluctant man he had in tow. "The doorman said she had a visitor about an hour ago… an older guy with a gift bag claiming to be an uncle here to surprise her for her birthday. That actually _is_ today, so he let him up!" he informed them. "The bastard even knew when her birthday was! I showed him the photo, and he ID'd Milner. Open it!"

"Don't you guys need some kind of warrant?" the super remained unmoved considering the building's clientele as he valued his job and news that he had allowed the police into one of the tenant's apartments for any unfounded reason, especially one with a profile like this reporter, would have seen him out of a job before the sunset. "C'mon! You've gotta give me more than someone said her uncle came by to see her. I'm gonna get my ass canned!"

"I'm gonna charge your ass with hindering an investigation if you don't open that door right now!" Danny threatened before the hesitant man relented and turned the keys to open multiple locks.

"Maureen Saunders?" Danny bellowed again with his gun drawn as he entered the apartment with Anthony backing him up. "It's the NYPD! We have reason to believe… SON OF A BITCH! She's down!" he yelled after turning the corner to the living room only to find the young woman dressed in comfortable Sunday morning sweats lying motionless across the couch with a syringe and a few other items of drug paraphernalia at her side.

"I got a faint pulse, but she's barely breathing! Call for a bus and put a rush on it!"

"The rest of the apartment's clear," Anthony confirmed even as he was pulling out his phone to get help. "He's not here. Do you think Milner did this? Or he messed with her head so bad she did it to herself after he left?"

"OF COURSE, HE DID THIS!" Danny shouted even as he was looking around for a way to prove that. "He wanted to discredit and kill her at the same time so he made it look like an OD! C'mon, he's a doctor! He's got access to anything he'd need! He'd be on camera coming into the building. He's gotta know we'd have him, unless…"

"Unless he doesn't give a damn about that for some reason," Anthony added. "I mean, he's already facing five first-degree counts. A man at his age…"

"Child molesters and rapists… that's what Erin said!" Danny recalled. "Milner has no intention of going to jail because he knows what's coming! He's just cleaning up before he takes himself out! That only leaves Jamie. Did my sister get a hold of him or Eddie yet?"

"I'm not sure; last I heard she was on her way to your Pop's house for dinner!"

"TRY HER AGAIN! I'll call Eddie! If he's been watching us all these years, Milner has to know what we do every Sunday! Tell them that he's coming after Jamie there, and I'm on my way!"

###

"We're here," Eddie enthusiastically announced as she parked the car in front of the iconic house on Harbor View Terrace as if Jamie wouldn't have recognized the fact for himself.

"Yeah, I get that," he murmured from the back seat without making a move to do anything about it. "Danny's not though," he noted with a heavy sigh as the only Reagan sibling car in view was parked in the driveway and belonged to Erin, who had arrived only moments before and was about to get a call inside the house that would leave the rest of the family scrambling.

"You don't know that… he could have come with your sister since they're working together, and besides, we're late," Eddie noted as she not-so-subtly tried to get him to make the first move in that direction. "I'm sure they're worried because I didn't tell them we were running so far behind," she regretfully added since there had been an unfulfilled promise to keep Henry informed of their whereabouts and intentions.

"Next time don't leave your phone anywhere near Kyle's line of fire."

"It was behind him on the bleachers!" Eddie tutted as an ill-aimed stray ball that slipped out of the young, wannabe pitcher's hand had managed to find her phone sitting well out of harm's way, or so she thought, and it was now sporting an unusable, cracked screen in need of repair as a result.

"My point, exactly," Jamie sighed as he continued to try to talk himself into getting out of that car.

"Well, we could have used yours if you would have kept it charged!" she huffed as the battery on his new-fangled phone had proven to be dead as well.

"I could have if you had bought the model that used the same car adapter I already had!" he fired back, the stress of the moment getting the better of him as their usual banter became strained.

"So, are we doing this?" Eddie urged as she had no desire to continue this argument since she knew Jamie was only using it as an avoidance technique. "You can't put it off forever, lambchop, and I just played like two hours of baseball with that kid! I'm starving!"

"Alright, Mrs. Reagan-to-be… let's get it over with," he finally conceded, knowing that nothing was going to come between Eddie and her food for long, not even an awkward family reunion as this would no doubt prove to be. He opened the back door just in time to spot a distinguished-looking older gentleman making his way toward them from a car across the street with a colorful gift bag in his hand and a lost look on an unfamiliar face.

"Hold on a sec; I think this guy needs some directions."

"Okay, Boy Scout," Eddie sighed with a glance in the mirror, knowing that even with every distraction Jamie would never be so rude as to turn someone like that away. "Just remember, I'm hungry, so don't take too long," she reminded before reaching across the seat to grab her purse, before accidentally spilling the contents on the floorboard. "Crap," she cursed at the momentary delay, although she was relieved that Jamie had at least finally made a move in the right direction. Unfortunately, she was too distracted in the moment to recognize William Milner from Maureen Saunders' last New York 1 segment that had aired a few days before—the one that Jamie had steadfastly refused to view in a continuing act of denial.

The sound of the car door closing on the street was enough to draw Nicky's attention to the window, and she spotted her uncle outside the vehicle after getting up to peek out.

"Never mind, Mom," she advised gratefully considering her rumbling stomach. "They're here. It looks like he's stopping to talk to one of the neighbors first though," she presumed as she watched an older man approaching the curb near where Eddie had parked. "That just means we're missing Uncle Danny yet before we can eat."

"Speak of the devil… well, almost; it's Anthony," Erin noted as her phone rang nearly on cue with her investigator's name and photo on display the second she stopped dialing. "Those two are probably driving each other crazy by now," she sighed before answering with a tentative "Yes?" ready to referee another fight between them as she had been on the receiving end of endless tirades from both detectives in the past few days.

"ERIN!" Anthony huffed as she could hear the muffled shouts of the medics and additional arriving officers in the background. "I've been trying to get a hold of you, but your line's been busy the last five minutes! Why didn't you pick up when you saw it was me?"

"ANTHONY, SLOW DOWN! What's going on?" Erin shouted back as she jumped to her feet, suddenly afraid that something had happened to her older brother. "I was trying to get in touch with Eddie, but they're here now. Where's Danny?" she demanded as everyone else looked on in concern.

"ERIN, WE DIDN'T PUT IT TOGETHER FAST ENOUGH! Milner went after Maureen Saunders this morning, and he's got more than an hour head start on us! I'm here at her apartment now, and it looks like he pushed his way in and injected her with something! The medics tried Narcan and everything, but she's barely hanging on! Danny thinks he's going to come after Jamie next! The bastard knows what's waiting for him in jail! He's trying to take the kids back before we get to him!"

"WHAT?!" Erin gasped as suddenly Nick's observation about Jamie meeting one of the neighbors took on a whole new, terrifying meaning and she ran over to the window to see who that might be. "DAD!" she shouted as a glance out the window with her eagle eyes confirmed their worst fears. "I THINK THAT'S MILNER OUT THERE WITH JAMIE! HE MUST NOT KNOW IT! Anthony said he already hurt Maureen! We have to do something!"

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Henry slammed his hands down on the table. "HE'S HERE? FRANCIS, WE HAVE TO WARN THE BOY! CALL YOUR DETAIL!"

"POP, IT'S TOO LATE FOR THAT!" Frank determined while first confirming his daughter's suspicion as William Milner was now standing within feet of his son on the sidewalk and given the facts as known was desperate enough to try anything. With only seconds to spare, he grabbed the one thing he had available in reach to use in self-defense and ran to the foyer with his father's old Fitz Special in hand—the weapon he had carried all his life in uniform as a backup and now as his primary. He was praying it would serve him well at least one more time and that its aim remained true as he threw open the front door and stepped out on the front stoop.

Completely unaware of what was about to transpire in the next several seconds and despite his current level of stress, Jamie had plastered a polite smile on his face and was anticipating the need to answer a simple question of where such-and-such lived on the block just as Eddie backed out of the driver's seat next to him. She had her wallet, and multiple small items in hand still focused on restoring order to her purse which happened to house her own off-duty weapon at the bottom.

"Can I help you?" he asked courteously with zero recognition evident even as he stared into oddly familiar hazel eyes that mirrored his own. Despite their shared genetic component, other than that, William Milner was no more of a match for his biological firstborn's physical features than Frank Reagan was, although that same intellect which had seen both Jamie and Maureen Saunders through the highest levels of their respective colleges and subsequent professions was present. With that, Milner had made a slight attempt to disguise his appearance, allowing him to get close enough to Maureen for a blitz attack at her door as she was leaving her apartment, but in this instance, he could not know that such precautions were unnecessary.

"Yes, I most certainly hope so," Milner hedged as he crept closer, and his hand slipped into the bag where two loaded syringes were waiting—ones that had been carefully mixed in the same manner as he had used on Maureen Saunders to negate the possible antagonistic properties of Narcan to reverse the respiratory depression caused by an overdose. With the proverbial noose of prison quickly closing around his neck, he intended to take out his revenge on those who were responsible for his fate before using that third injection to take the easier way out himself.

"I'm looking for my son. Hello, Jameson," he managed with a wicked smile as he prepared to pounce just before Frank Reagan took matters into his own hands.

"WILLIAM MILNER!" Frank thundered to let Jamie know of the imminent threat from just outside the house where he was leveling that old Fitz Special. "PLEASE DON'T HURT MY FAMILY!"

"ED, GET DOWN!" Jamie gasped and did what he had been trained to do on autopilot from the earliest possible age as he grabbed his beloved roughly around the waist, flinging her hard to the pavement with her outstretched left hand bearing the brunt of the blow as he landed on top to shield her for protection.

"OW!" Eddie cried in shock and pain just as the sound of a shot rang out and the bullet whizzed above them, striking its intended target square in the temple as William Milner fell to the ground in a similar heap just a few feet away. "JAMIE! WHAT JUST HAPPENED? WHY WAS HE HERE?"

"I… I don't…" he stammered likewise in disbelief with no answers available as he rolled off to the side and stared over at the body on the ground, also trying to comprehend how and why this had come to be. A major adrenaline surge and that confusion serving to mask the pain from a repeated blow to his side—one that had the potential for more serious consequences this time.

"JAMIE! EDDIE!" Erin managed to rush past her father and run down to them first. "Are you guys okay? He didn't get you with anything, did he?"

"GET US?" Eddie asked as her sister-in-law-to-be helped her sit up next to the car while she continued to clutch her throbbing wrist. "W-what do you mean, get us?"

"Milner went after Maureen Saunders this morning… Anthony and Danny found her unresponsive in her apartment, so they called to warn us. He had syringes," Erin noted as she pointed to the bag and the paraphernalia laying scattered around it near where the obviously deceased man had fallen. "We think he was planning to do the same to Jamie before taking himself out."

"Oh my God!" Eddie cried as she looked over to her fiancé to make sure he hadn't been injured. What she saw was an utterly vacant stare that frightened her more. "Jamie, please talk to me!" she begged just as Frank joined them. "Did he hurt you?"

"Dad! We need help!" Erin pleaded as she looked up as she spotted her father hovering over them. "I think Eddie might have a broken arm, and Jamie's not saying anything! I don't know if he's okay or not!"

"Jameson! Here! Look at me!" Frank ordered with his concern mounting over this static response as his son was transfixed on William Milner's accusing, open glare still trained his way even in death as the older man lay prone on the sidewalk just a few feet away in an ever-growing pool of blood.

When those wide, incredulous, but much-loved hazel eyes finally tore themselves away from that horrible sight and looked up, there were multiple layers of disbelief evident as Jamie tried to process what had just happened between two opposing fathers.

One had tried to kill him while the other had done everything necessary to prevent that.

In the simplest words, it was emotionally overwhelming, and he was still struggling to grasp that even while a familiar weakness began to rush into his body—one that he had experienced before, but never so quickly or to this extent.

"Dad, I… n-need s'm h-help," were the only slurred and stuttering words he managed before Frank watched in dismay as the lights started to dim in the second set of matching green and brown flecked eyes on that street before they rolled back and closed as his youngest softly sank back against the car next to Eddie's side and struggled to stay conscious.

"Jamie?" she cried as her attention was drawn back to him and away from Erin's fussing over her now intensely painful broken wrist. "JAMIE! What's wrong with him? Is it the drugs?" she added and frantically looked up at Erin and Frank.

"Francis?" Henry demanded the same as he finally managed to make it to the street to join them only to see his beloved grandson in what appeared to be the same state as Milner. "What's happening? Was he hit? Did Milner get him?"

"No! He didn't get close enough! I made sure of it! Dear God, I think it's his spleen," was all Frank could manage after recognizing with a start from his many years on the street that this was more than just mental strain, it was plain physical shock. He frantically pulled out his phone to call for more help even though all hell was currently breaking loose around them with units arriving from every direction after a call for shots fired at the NYPD Commissioner's house.

* * *

Yay_ for Frank and the old Fitz Special! He's always ready to defend his kids. Couldn't pass up the chance to add a little more whump to the story. Next, we'll see where Danny's head is when he realizes that he and Anthony figured out things a little too late._


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"WHERE IS HE?!" Daniel Reagan demanded urgently and at volume as he practically busted through the double doors at the end of the hall of the now-all-too-familiar Kings County ER, causing an immediate ruffle among the already unnerved detectives in the Commissioner's detail charged with guarding the entrance before they recognized his oldest son and stood down once again. The frantic drive from Maureen Saunders' Manhattan apartment after hearing the news surrounding the events of William Milner's shooting had been fraught with angst and aggravation, and he remained unapologetic for his state upon arrival.

"DANNY! Keep your voice down; you're just going to upset everyone!" an equally distraught sister tried without success hush him from where she was standing next to Nicky, Henry and Sean even while she was wringing her own hands in worry. "They took Jamie straight to surgery as soon as he got here," Erin informed him more quietly after pulling him to the side. "The EMTs said he was starting to go into shock, but Dr. Patricelli just came out a minute ago with a report and the surgeon had him stabilized. His spleen was completely ruptured this time though and he lost a lot of blood. They're going to have to take it out," she fretted.

"But he'll still be okay, right?" Danny looked for reassurance on that front given the set of concerned faces that had greeted him. "C'mon! Last time she said people do fine without one!"

"We were just looking that up," Nicky confessed as there had been a frantic and ill-advised search conducted on her phone through the WebMD pages for confirmation as soon as the doctor left. "Everything we found said he can live the rest of his life without it, but he'll be more prone to infections. He'll just have to be really careful when he gets sick and make sure he gets his flu shot and stuff like that from now on."

"Okay, that's not so bad though, right?" her uncle huffed back until he realized no one else seemed all that relieved. "There's more?"

"Yeah, tell him what else it said… that an injured spleen can be like a ticking time bomb and kill in minutes because of massive bleeding," Sean added with that teenaged-boy lack of tact as he had been utterly rattled by another act of violence that had touched so close to home, and was truly worried about his uncle, and by extension, his own father who had not made peace with a younger brother yet. "Remember that quarterback Nate Williams from Central High? His name came up on Google too. He collapsed and died at school in the cafeteria a couple of days after taking a big hit in that Championship game against us last year. That's not going to happen here, right?" he begged, the fact that he had so suddenly lost his mother making this all too real once again.

"No, Sean," Henry was quick to put a hand on his great-grandson's shoulder and try to convince everyone of that fact. "Your Uncle Jamie is going to be just fine. He's in the best of hands right now… that's why Francis had him brought right back here to the trauma center. We all just have to believe that."

"Then are we gonna have to give blood again?" Sean slipped in one last concern on what he figured would be another expected family obligation, having barely recovered from the squeamish experience last time.

"No, they won't let us; it's too soon," Erin answered, giving her nephew a reprieve. "I think you have to wait at least eight weeks or more in between. Uncle Jamie's going to have to rely on other donors this time."

"Well, he sure couldn't rely on me, could he? DAMN IT! I should have seen it sooner!" Danny cursed himself out of guilt for once again failing to prevent Milner from taking these final acts. "We sat up there for two days on our thumbs while this guy was just waiting to set them up! Anthony called when I was on my way here. Maureen Saunders was DOA when she got to Lenox Hill," he added as that outcome had not been so positive. "Overdosed on some kind of Fentanyl cocktail. That's why the Narcan didn't work… bastard mixed it with something else. We didn't get to her in time."

"That's probably what he tried to use on Jamie too," Erin reported as she gave thanks once again for her father's quick actions and excellent aim. "You saved him with that call," she tried to assure her older brother who was obviously taking this badly. "And Eddie too maybe… she would have fought back."

"Speaking of Eddie, where is she?" Danny asked after looking around and failing to spot his prospective new sister-in-law from behind the so-called Dream Team huddled around his father a little further down the hall. Garrett, Gormley, and Baker were likewise being brought up to speed and now charged with handling the press-side fallout from this event.

"They took her in the back for x-rays. She was in a lot of pain but wouldn't admit it until Dr. Patricelli finally convinced her to have her wrist looked at while we're waiting. I think she broke it when they fell after Jamie pushed her out of the way," Erin informed. "That's how he got hurt too… Dad used the code."

"Please don't hurt my family," Danny assumed as that phrase and the actions it demanded had been drilled into each of their heads from the moment they were of age and could comprehend it's meaning. "Thank God for that and Pop's old Fitz," he murmured before Frank Reagan spotted his oldest's arrival and moved their way.

"Daniel," he greeted him grimly with a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Good to have you here, son."

"I'm really sorry for all this, Dad!" Danny was quick to apologize and worry about the attention the Commissioner's actions in this were sure to amplify. "It just keeps getting worse for all of us every time I turn around! I haven't done anything right yet! Now the kid's hurt, Maureen Saunders is dead and the fact you shot Milner will be all over the news, anyway! I just didn't put it together soon enough! Anthony saw it first, not me!" he added and shouldered the lion's share of the blame.

"A minute more might have been too late, but the two of you saved your brother's life," Frank assured. "That's the only thing that matters. Garrett will put a press release out, and the story will be the truth… that Milner wanted revenge because of the DA filing charges against him… that he first went after Maureen Saunders for bringing all this to light before coming to our house where I was forced to defend my own," he stated. "Everyone will assume it to be Erin, and that's all they'll get. The stations are focusing more on Maureen right now because she was one of them. Jamie's name will stay out of it completely if he wants. If anyone asks, he's here because of last week's injury, and all of that is exactly what happened."

"I sure hope he sees it that way, and Eddie too…" Danny trailed off as his brother's fiancée was being wheeled back to them in a chair with her left arm propped high above her lap on several thick pillows and wrapped up to the elbow in a large, burdensome-looking splint.

"So, it's fractured in like two places, but nothing's displaced," she sadly puffed with a deflated, nervous tug on her necklace when her much-loved engagement solitaire had been secured for safety. "No surgery; I'll get a cast on for six weeks when the swelling comes down. They said it'll heal pretty fast, but it's probably going to take a while before my rings will fit again. I guess maybe Jamie won't be able to slip my wedding band on at the ceremony," she projected with hurt and tears evident at the thought even though their date was several months in the future.

"Aw, Eddie, don't worry about that… we'll find a way to make it work," Erin tried to distract from what was an emotional cover at that point as the younger woman was obviously more worried about her fiancé's health and the immediate threat facing them.

"You didn't hear anything else from the surgeon yet, did you?" Eddie pressed, nervous that something might have happened in the short time she had been gone.

"No, just what Elaine told us a few minutes ago before you went back… that they were going ahead with the splenectomy and she would let us know when it was over or if there were any other concerns," Frank answered. "He'll be fine, sweetheart, and you can always push back the date for a few months. I'm sure I can convince the venue to open up some options if the two of you need more time to recover."

"Like hell," Eddie gritted under her teeth and refused to allow any more thoughts of this altering their plans, especially with the unnerving thought of her beloved under the knife in an operating room at that very moment. "I'll wear a hula-hoop around my finger all day if I have to, but I'm walking down the aisle and marrying your son on May 10th."

"Understood," her future father-in-law nodded and put that idea to bed. No one else was really sure what to say until Danny tried to break the uncomfortable silence that followed, but only managed to make things worse at first.

"Listen, Eddie," he started, ready to offer an apology to her for the way things had gone. "I'm really sorry about all this…"

"Don't," she cut him off abruptly and refused to hear it as she shook her head. "I don't blame you for anything and neither will Jamie. Just talk to him when he wakes up; he knows, okay?" she assured and wiped her eyes as they welled up further and ran over, this topic proving to be too emotional to handle right now.

"Yeah, but…"

"Danny, I promise he's not mad about what happened at the hostage scene anymore," Eddie reiterated as she continued to struggle to hold things together by this point. "If anything, it has him second guessing whether or not he's a good cop or ever has been. Please tell him he is though! He's really down on himself and thinking he was never meant to be one in the first place. Now that this happened…" she trailed off and tried to imagine how seeing Milner killed in front of him in that manner might add to Jamie's difficulties. "I tried to make it better this morning by showing him how an old case turned out, but I'm not sure it worked."

"That's because of all my years telling the boys they were meant for the job since it was in their blood," Henry admitted and shouldered his share of guilt with a knowing glance over at Frank to take some of the burden off him. "I guess I took too much pride in it. That's my fault. I'm sure that deep down Jamie knows why he's a good cop; he just needs to believe in himself again."

"I really hope so. He was ready to walk into that dinner and start putting all this behind him before Milner showed up. He didn't even know who that man was!" Eddie defended with culpability of her own and finally allowed herself to go back to that traumatizing event. "Besides, if you're going to blame yourselves, then you'll have to put it on me too. We were arguing over the stupid phone charger when he got out of the car and I wasn't paying attention. I should have recognized Milner from Maureen's report! Jamie refused to watch it, and he just assumed that it was an older guy who needed directions or something. He was trying to be nice before he heard your Dad yell. I never thought someone like that would… or could… to his own son and daughter?" she trailed off without mentioning the unmentionable out loud. "That's just not right!"

"No, it's not," Danny tried to appease her. "Alright, I'll talk to him as soon as he's up for it, okay?" he promised, relieved to hear that perhaps Jamie was no longer harboring ill will towards him after all. That bit about questioning his abilities was bothersome enough though that his older brother somehow managed to worm himself into a position where he was the one sitting by that bedside in recovery next to Eddie out of guilt for his own perceived role in that a few hours later.

"Hey, I think he's finally waking up," she noted as a heavy sigh was accompanied by a squeeze of her hand and those much-loved, but still-drowsy eyes finally blinked open a few times before focusing on her. "You're okay," she assured softly as Jamie was still trying to reconnect with his senses. "You were bleeding internally again and had surgery to take out your spleen, but it's all over now and everything's gonna be fine."

"Out…" Jamie rasped as he sluggishly tried to come up to speed with what that meant for his general health going forward given what they had been told before about the spleen's role in that during the whole prior hospital admission saga. "S'not good."

"No, she's right; you're actually really fine, kid… just'a freak, but we knew that already," Danny butted in with teasing relief and a half smirk as his brother's eyes trailed over in what only could be described as a tired, failed glare considering what had transpired this past week and the way Jamie was currently feeling about himself.

"Lambchop, he doesn't mean that," Eddie chided and tried to smooth things over as she knew the older sibling was just trying to lighten the mood in his typical way.

"Yes, I do," Danny defended with no mercy evident which seemed a little out of character, even for him, considering when and where this conversation was taking place. "C'mon, what else would you call someone with… what did the doc say it was, an add-on?"

"Accessory spleen," Eddie corrected. "And she also said like ten percent or more of the population has them, so that hardly makes him a freak," she ruffled in indignation. "For all we know you've got one too! No one can tell where it came from! Maybe it was your mom's side!"

"STOP IT!" Danny squirmed inwardly as any such thought of an appendage growing back gave him the instant heebie-jeebies induced by childhood trauma. By his tenth birthday, Joe had finally managed to convince his parents that he was responsible enough for a pet, and over Mary's strenuous vocal objections, had returned home from a trip to the store with a terrarium and a brand-new Bearded Dragon he promptly named "Izzy". Unfortunately, the stealthy lizard had managed to escape its enclosure in their shared bedroom the very first night and histrionics ensued for a week before an older brother spotted a conspicuous flick from behind his coin collection on the shelf. A quick grab resulted in said tail promptly falling off in his hands as the frightened reptiles are known to shed the extension in times of stress for shock value. Izzy and Danny were never quite the same afterward, especially when the latter was forced to endure watching the so-called miracle of regeneration for months afterward. The thought of that same process happening to his youngest brother was disconcerting, to say the least.

"I've got exactly the right number of parts," he continued and considered the recurrent nightmares this might invoke. "No spares, unlike Harvard here!"

"Huh?" Jamie tried and failed to follow along as all that was still moving too fast for him to comprehend.

"When the surgeon was in there, he found a little nodule sitting right behind the main spleen," Eddie continued to explain while trying to keep things simple. "It's so small it didn't really even show up on the scan you had last week. Lots of people have them… sometimes more than one. They're congenital, so it's been there since before you were born. He said this one has a good blood supply though, and it'll probably grow and function just like the old spleen now that one is gone so you won't have to worry about more infections and stuff after six months or so."

"'Kay," Jamie accepted that admittedly weird explanation at face value with no urge from his foggy brain to follow up. "Your arm is hurt," he managed to observe the splint with a swallow before his eyes closed again to replay those final moments. "Did that guy…?"

"No, I just fell on it the wrong way," she brushed that off, in no way wanting him to feel guilty for pushing her down. "I'll need a cast for a few weeks, but it's nothing big, okay? It'll be off by the wedding."

"S'good," he managed to reply with much the same over-accepting demeanor that had Danny wondering if perhaps this was indeed the most opportune time to have that little brotherly chit-chat that had been avoided all week. If Jamie could be this mellow and non-reactive over Eddie being hurt, something that normally would have set his youngest brother off like a roman candle flare, there was hope he could get his points across and have this tiff all tidied up in much the same manner before the drugs wore off and he lost his chance.

"So, you've gotta be starving by now," Danny skillfully played the Eddie card as he knew she had not taken a moment for herself before this and her stomach had been growling audibly for hours after missing dinner. "I'll stay with the kid while he wakes up. You can go down to the cafeteria and tell the rest of the family he's okay. The doc said they'll be able to see him later when he's in a regular room and can have more visitors."

"Are you sure?" Eddie asked, as even though the offer was tempting, she didn't want anything to adversely affect Jamie's recovery.

"Absofreakinlutely," Danny guaranteed with his most charming smile and a word Anthony had used at least a dozen times to drive him near batty in the car over the weekend. "I'll just sit back and watch a little TV," he added after putting his feet up on the end of the bedrail and clicking on the muted television. "Hey, it's Shark Week," he noted as the Discovery Channel flipped by and he settled on it. "He loves this stuff."

"Okay," Eddie conceded as she got the gist of what he was trying to do and acknowledged it wasn't a half-bad idea. Putting her faith in her future brother-in-law to toe the line, although admittedly under the threat of death given the warning look he received in return, she added an "I'll be back in a little bit, just get some rest," and gave Jamie with a kiss on the forehead before taking her leave with fingers crossed before he could object.

* * *

_Not the best place to hit the pause button, but this conversation grew much too long for a single chapter, so I had to split it somewhere. We'll stop here just before Jamie and Danny start their big, brotherly Come-to-Jesus moment and continue next time._


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"So, you feeling alright? The nurse said she'd set you up with one of those pain button thingies if you need it," Danny offered, trying to step off on the right foot.

"Go 'way," came the expected reply after Jamie thought about it for a half-second before deciding it might be better to ride this out on his own—too close to the edge and afraid he'd use the drugs to mask other things at this point like the image of William Milner's cold eyes staring back at him which persisted even now in this post OR state.

"You win 'kay? Were right. Don't even care 'nymore."

"Yeah, that's not what this is about, or how it's going down, so let's get that straight. You're not pushing me out of here and clamming up. We're finishing this like we should have done before any of it started."

"M'too tired."

"Then I'll wait, 'cause I'm not going anywhere until we do this, kid," Danny returned as he prepared to settle back in while his brother slept off the remaining effects of the anesthesia, content to bide his time for now if it was necessary. His stubborn presence, however, was enough to loosen Jamie's resolve and the conversation continued an hour or so later when the younger Reagan sibling woke up again feeling more alert, despite the growing discomfort in his side as the initial pain meds wore off.

"You stayed?" he flinched uncomfortably as he shifted his position.

"'Course I did," Danny noted that and deliberately kept his voice low before yawning with a stretch as he turned off the TV, having flipped to the sports network to catch up on scores. "If you're still not up to it, we can hold off, but I told you I wasn't leaving until we worked this out. I'll sleep on the couch when they move you upstairs if I have to."

"Can't undo what happened," Jamie added sadly when he was ready to start, but only about the first item on the agenda, that initial conflict during the hostage situation, as the rest of it was too raw. "Not any of it, but after all this… I think you made the right call; I waited too long."

"Look, I called an audible," Danny admitted as he could hear that edge of doubt in his brother's voice that Eddie had been concerned about. "But I didn't mean any disrespect, and none of that is what we should be talking about now, right? Or is it?" he pried, trying to eke out what was behind this sudden lack of faith.

"Sure felt like disrespect," Jamie muttered despondently under his breath.

"Well, that's my charming personality," Danny added with regret over that, especially given the current circumstances. "Any event, I apologize, for what it's worth."

'Well, I told myself that writing you up was strictly professional, but I'm not sure if that's true."

"How's that?"

"When we were young, you used to always ride me about being the Boy Scout, following all the rules."

"It was pretty annoying," Danny agreed cautiously with a light chuckle.

"Yeah, well it's who I am. What can I say? On the job, too. I know you always looked down on that, and now we know why I am that way. You were right; I'm not like anyone else in our family," he acknowledged their different birthright sadly. "I guess I never had it in me, and maybe I never will. You and Joe were always better."

"No. You got that backward, kid. I don't look down on it, at all. I mean, I wish I could play it straight and be as good a cop as you are. You were always more like Dad than I am."

"Come on," Jamie faded off a little as the knowledge that he didn't share that particular DNA was especially hurtful. "We both know that's not true, especially now."

"It _is _true. I'm just not made that way. Frankly, that's why I'm not gonna go as far on the job as you. It is what it is."

"First-grade detective, got your gold badge in three-and-a-half years? Not too shabby. I never even made it there… had to take a test to advance… maybe that's all I'm good at."

"Yeah, but you aced it; I couldn't do that, and besides we both know what was holding you back all that time… I mean besides _you," _Danny frowned as he never quite understood why his normally overachieving little brother had seemingly lacked ambition on the job for so many years—that was until the truth behind a relationship with a certain blonde had come to the forefront.

"Being the Commissioner's son," Jamie shrugged at the irony now.

"That, and other stuff like what happened to Vinny and not wanting to lose another partner afterward. C'mon, you've been stuck on Eddie for years, we all knew it. Besides, I was a detective before Pop made PC, otherwise, it might have been the same for me."

"Doubt it."

"Yeah? You think I'm so great?" Danny frowned as he had a little of his own guilt to let out. "Not always. I completely messed this Milner thing up and that could have cost your life," he admitted with regret evident. "I never saw it for what it was, kid. Even before I knew it was about you, I was behind the eight ball. If it wasn't for Anthony…" he trailed off, knowing that his little brother understood how much it pained him to say that. "You know how hard it is for me to admit that square badge got the better of me, right? But I'm doin' that right now because it's the truth. If it hadn't been for him, that guy would have got to you like Maureen Saunders."

"Maureen?" Jamie puzzled as he had obviously been out of the loop when it came to all of the day's events and only barely recalled Erin bringing her name up during the melee at the house.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, uh… hey, listen… maybe we should talk about that later. Eddie didn't want you to get upset," Danny backed down as he hadn't anticipated being the one to share that bit of news about the newly-discovered half-sister, especially so soon, but the cat was nearly out of the bag already and he could see that an explanation was necessary. "Milner pushed into her apartment this morning and managed to shoot her up with whatever he was going to use on you. We figured it out too late and got her to Lenox Hill, but she didn't make it. I'm really sorry, kid."

"Wait, he killed her? She'd dead?"

"Yeah."

"So, a rapist _and _a murderer," Jamie tried to fathom this latest development as he painfully absorbed that information and added it to the pile that was quickly engulfing him like quicksand. A sibling he didn't even know as a sister had been taken away as fast as she had arrived in his life by an evil man they shared in common who had done much the same.

This was all getting to be too much, and too taxing to deal with as he felt himself wanting to push it away again and retreat.

"Jesus, this so screwed up, Dan. I don't know what to think or feel anymore."

"Well, you can believe me when I say you're my brother, same as always, and I probably don't tell you enough, but I'm very proud of you," Danny tried to encourage even though he could see that those words were having little desired effect. "This Milner guy… he's nothing."

"He's my biological father, Danny, and that changes things whether I want to admit to it or not. You, Erin and Joe have Dad and Pop for a legacy, but now I have… him… and what he did to Mom and the others."

"BUT NOTHING! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! Erin and I are never gonna look at you as anything other than our pain in the ass little brother, same as always. Why would you think Dad would be any different? Sure, he feels guilty for what Milner did to Mom, but none of us would change anything about you… not even the annoying Boy Scout, rule-following, irritating-as-hell stuff that makes us all butt heads sometimes. What did Eddie say about her Mom? It's part of life's rich pageant or something like that. But what Dad did on the street today… he protected you like his own because you are, just like he would for any of us!" Danny emphasized and then waited for some kind of acceptance which was not forthcoming as Jamie was not yet able to wrap his head around what had happened.

"If you have to think about Milner, just take the positive then because otherwise, you're nothing like him… at least now we know where your brains came from. I gotta admit I was always jealous of how easy school was for you and wondered why I didn't get any of that… now I know it's not in my DNA," he grinned before shuddering. "Just like those extra body parts. I'm gonna give him credit for those too."

"So, this is a win for you?" Jamie just shook his head, amazed at his brother's ability to brush off what to him was almost more than he could bear. "A way for you to pin what you don't like about me on someone else?"

"No, that's not what I meant. C'mon, Jay… it is what it is, right? What's that saying… you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family? Well, in this case, you _can_… you can choose Dad because no matter which way you look at it, he's your real father and no one else has to know about the rest of it but us. Put it away, forget this other guy and find some way to deal with it."

"I don't know if I can," Jamie admitted just as the nurse entered the room and interrupted their conversation for some necessary medical administrations before he was moved to a regular room and to the attention of the rest of the family.

###

"Do you think you got through to him?" a concerned Frank Reagan asked as he stood with his oldest son outside of Jamie's room and the two watched through the window as Eddie, Erin, and Henry took their mother- and grandfather-hen propensities to a new level while they settled him in and made him comfortable. While his youngest had accepted ruffle of the hair and a hand on his shoulder along with a relieved heavy sigh from his father upon his arrival on this floor, there was little else said between the two and still a troublesome sense of disconnect.

"Not sure," Danny revealed as he shared his father's angst. "I mean we talked; he doesn't seem mad at all anymore… not even at Milner. It's like the kid just goes blank and his eyes glass over when anyone mentions that bastard and what happened though. He was kinda upset to hear about Maureen Saunders, but that was the biggest reaction I got, and he just sort of took it. I hate it when he's like that, but I guess he's still pretty out of it and in shock over what happened. Maybe I tried too soon, or maybe I really screwed up again and he's gonna need professional help to deal with this; I don't know."

"Well, he did just suffer a trauma and major surgery; I'm sure he's just feeling the effects, but I think your instincts were right… he needed to touch base with someone in the family other than Eddie and he's not ready to do that with me yet. Hopefully putting the hostage situation behind the two of you will help."

"That's just it… I don't think it did. If anything, that whole deal just made this one ten-times worse," Danny fretted. "And Eddie's right… he's really depressed and down on himself, especially about being a cop. I feel like he might even quit the department over this. Did I do that?" he worried over his role in causing that evident harm which had become so apparent now. "All those years of being a hard-ass to him and calling him Harvard and stuff? I made a point of making him feel different when we were growing up, and after last week, I pretty much told him he's no good at the job either. Now that all this has come out about Milner and what he did, I think Jamie believes that. It's not true though… I mean you should see him out there running a scene, Dad! Maybe I can spot an opportunity faster and jump on it without thinking sometimes, that's just the way I'm built, but he can do twenty things in his head at once, and all he's trying to do is get the best outcome while keeping his guys safe. I might be a good detective, but he's a better boss than I ever could be."

"No," Frank shook his head with his own regrets. "That's not on you; your mother and I started it. She put him on the lawyer path before he was out of diapers, and I allowed it because that's what she wanted. I felt like I owed her as much after what my being on the job took away from her," he admitted with guilt thinking back to that rough patch in his marriage and the loneliness Mary experienced that had started all of this. "The rest of you were just following our lead."

"Yeah, well, we're not kids anymore," Danny continued. "It's not an excuse. I should have seen what it was doing to him, but I ignored it. Hell, I even tried to tell myself I was making him tougher, but I think I did it to make myself feel better. I was always jealous because being a cop or a Marine seemed like all I was ever gonna be really good at, and he could have done anything and gone anywhere. Maybe I didn't want him to show me up there too."

"And I should have stopped it long ago, but since he's been on the job, I keep thinking back to all the times I outright told him I didn't support his decision… that I'd rather he be in a courtroom because it's more civilized, even if that meant he wasn't happy. Then I pressed him to be a boss because that's what I saw him doing even though he said he was completely fulfilled being on patrol. What kind of father does that when his son honestly loves what he's doing, and has a gift for it?" Frank openly berated himself. "No, Daniel, this is all on me. After Joe…" he paused for a moment to grieve that loss as well. "Even before that, I was just being selfish."

"I guess I never really thought about what it might be doing to him either," Danny admitted. "I mean I always knew what I wanted to be, and no one ever said I shouldn't be a cop, or that I wasn't good enough at it. If someone had told me that all my life and something like this happened… I guess I'd be having doubts too."

"If I ever did that… made you feel like you weren't up to snuff when it comes to things like being a boss, I'm sorry," Frank apologized as he thought about a similar impact he might have been made on his oldest. "I didn't mean to; it's just that I never saw you that way behind a desk."

"No, I think you've probably got that one bang on," Danny returned with an admitted laugh as he looked down. "C'mon, I'd be miserable; you know it, and so do I. Maybe someday when I feel like I've lost a step, but not now… or probably ever," he reconsidered honestly. "Since I've got my twenty in; I think I'd rather hand over my papers and try something totally different instead."

"Well, if you ever get the itch… I know a guy," his father offered before turning his attention back to the matter at hand. "I just wish I'd realized what it was doing to your brother before this."

"You think he'll be alright? What if he goes back on the job and keeps second-guessing himself or tries to be more like me and jumps into things without thinking? That's not how his mind works! He'll get himself or someone else hurt!"

"I won't allow that to happen, Danny," Frank added sadly as he rocked back on his heels considered those consequences as an added burden to what had already occurred. It seemed too soon to approach Jamie right now, but he vowed to do so, certainly before his son was ready to return to work. "I'll give him some time to deal with this while he's recovering physically, but he won't go back to the 2-9 until his head is right, or he won't go back at all."

"Not for nothin', Dad, but it's not going to help the two of you reconnect if you've gotta play Commissioner with him over this too."

"I'm not going to," Frank insisted although he knew the way such a tough decision would come across and the further divide it might cause in their relationship. "At least I hope to God it doesn't come to that, but I'll do everything necessary to keep him safe because whether he's ready to admit it or not, I'm his father first."

* * *

_Okay, so one last chapter turned into two and I'm up to 23 for this story. That's it, I swear, lol. Next up, Frank and Jamie finally put things right before we follow up with that long-anticipated Sunday dinner with the family and an eventful first week back at work for our favorite sergeant and his soon-to-be bride._


	22. Chapter 22

_Sorry for the delay in posting, but the opportunity for a much-needed pop-up vacation with the hubs came up last week, and I definitely needed that! Back and playing catchup now._

* * *

Chapter 22

"So, you ready to bust outta this joint, lambchop?" Eddie questioned with a relieved smirk while dangling a plastic bag with his clothing and personal effects in front as she stood in the doorway of Jamie's hospital room the following Friday morning, exactly one week from his initial release date before the entire Milner fiasco waylaid them and a few days before his anticipated second-round discharge.

"Really?" he looked over in disbelief and immediately perked up as she caught his attention.

"Yeah. It seems like someone sweet-talked Dr. Patricelli into clearing you early and she said yes, which is surprising, especially since you bailed the first time AMA, but the nurse just stopped me in the hall and said the tests all look fine this morning, so you're good to go. She's getting the paperwork together at the desk; you can have your things back now," Eddie determined and tossed the bag over since she had preemptively refused to provide anything before this that might lead to a second escape.

"Hallelujah!" Jamie breathed in relief at that somewhat unexpected announcement as he reached for the purposefully withheld items after carefully sitting up on the edge of the bed, ready at a moment's notice to trade in this dreaded hospital garb once and for all even though he was still feeling some effects and soreness from the recent abdominal surgery. "Thanks for doing that!" he gushed in mistaken appreciation before wasting no time in getting dressed into a set of more comfortable clothes and tossing the dreaded open-backed gown to the side. "Yesterday she said I was going to have to wait until Monday because they weren't going to let me go over the weekend."

"Don't get too excited," Eddie warned as her nose wrinkled while she tried unsuccessfully to itch a spot underneath the annoying new cast she was sporting before giving up in frustration. "It wasn't me. I'm still getting used to this thing so I really can't take care of you on my own or drive yet. I think maybe a little birdie, or should I say a great big six-foot-four one whispered in her ear and promised you'd be under house arrest until then, anyway."

"Dad?" he deflated slightly and realized such an intervention likely came with its own set of rules and regulations, number one among them involving confinement under armed guard at the family home in Bay Ridge where he would be forced to face down this thing out in the open once and for all.

"Don't you mean _Frank?" _she asked with deliberate dripping emphasis knowing that after having a week to process things, Jamie was on the verge of being able to talk with his father openly again and just needed a little nudge in that direction. While the two had been amiable to each other during the Commissioner's daily visits, the time had not been right yet to sort through and acknowledge the more hurtful aspects that Milner's actions had brought to the surface.

"C'mon, Ed," Jamie dropped his eyes to the floor with guilt evident over his previous choice of words. "I didn't mean it like that… I was just really upset and didn't handle it very well."

"And you had every right to react that way," she softened and assured. "But I think maybe it's time you start. You know you won't be able to put any of this behind you until you settle some of this with your Dad. He needs it too," she insisted before adding a reminder. "You felt a lot better after working things out with Danny."

"I know that," Jamie sighed as he appreciated the fact that the rest of the family had been supportive without pushing him too much to talk about things all week. "It's just hard."

"Well, maybe this will give you a chance then," Eddie huffed as the ding of the elevator down the hall revealed a determined-looking Commissioner heading their way. "Speak of the devil," she warned.

"Edit, Jameson," Frank greeted them with a warm smile as he arrived. "A little birdie told me you were being released this morning."

"Yeah, there's been a lot of twittering around here today," Jamie returned with a bit of light sarcasm knowing his father's roll in that as well as the Commissioner's disdain for and frequent misuse of the social media term. "I suppose the next thing you'll tell me is that you have a car waiting that's pointed towards Bay Ridge as a condition."

"I do," Frank acknowledged as he knew his son had deftly read his intentions. "But only if you want it," he emphasized with the clear intent of trying not to come across as ambushing anyone this time around. "With Eddie in a cast, your grandfather and I were hoping you'd both stay with us for a few days to help out a little until you're back on your feet. It's what family does…" he trailed off with a hopeful air.

"And you knew about this, right?" Jamie called Eddie out to clear the air since he already assumed what the answer would be.

"I, um… well, yeah. When he called this morning to ask, I said I thought it was a good idea and packed a couple of bags for us," she finally admitted sheepishly before deciding immediate retreat was in her best interest in order to give father and son a chance to say what needed to be said in private this time. "You know what? I think I'm going to run down to the vending machine and get few bottles of that ginger ale to take with us before we leave. I can't seem to get enough of that stuff; it's amazing," she fluffed before turning and hightailing it down the hall.

"Jamie, look… if you're not comfortable, I can take you both back to the apartment," Frank offered after her abrupt departure, although disappointed they might still be at the point where that was necessary.

"No, I just want this to be over," his son admitted with sadness evident as he reached for his watch. "I'm not sure it ever will be though, and I've been thinking about it all week… in fact, it's all I've been thinking about."

"Me too," Frank confessed with a sigh as he entered and sat down on the chair, preparing at last for what might be a lengthy but much-needed conversation. "What this has done to you… I'm sorry for my part in that. I never intended on keeping you out of the loop."

"Yeah, I get that now, and I'm sorry for the way I acted too. None of this was your fault either, and I'm not angry anymore," Jamie reiterated and confirmed Danny's previous observation. "I feel like I should be at someone, though... right? Especially after what happened to Mom and now Maureen; I didn't even get a chance to know her," he admitted remorsefully. "I mean I'm not even sure I would have wanted to… her or the others. But I'm not mad… not at you, and not even at him," he added, having refused to speak William Milner's name out loud even once all week. "In fact, I have to thank you for what you did… you and Pop's old Fitz," he acknowledged, having not one shred of sympathy or sorrow for what had happened in that regard.

"Well if it helps, I'm glad to hear that because I've been nothing but angry over what this has done to you, and I thank God your mother never realized what happened to her," Frank conceded as the fact he had not prevented such a thing continued to eat at him. "Milner got what he deserved in the end, and I have no remorse for that, but at the same time, I want you to know that even if we had found out before this, neither Mom nor I would have ever wanted to change a single thing about you."

"Some things you did… still do," Jamie refused to completely buy into that, especially given what seemed like a lifelong battle to be considered the same as the rest of the family. "C'mon, Dad, just be honest with me for once. If you had your way, I'd be a lawyer or something else right now instead of a cop. You both were even ready to let my sister take the test, but Erin didn't want to and convinced Mom to tell you she was the one against it. That was never the case with me," he added sadly. "She never wanted me on the job, and it's only been a few months since the last time you admitted the same even though I told you I loved being a cop more than anything and was happy on patrol. You never thought I was right for it… so maybe you and everyone else sensed this all along."

"Jamie," Frank sighed, knowing his son had zeroed right in on the very question he had been asking himself all week—whether he and Mary had treated their youngest differently because in some way it was known to them that he was. This same conversation had been rehashed numerous times over the years, and more recently among just the two of them particularly since his Harvard-educated boy had proclaimed that he was turning from law to the family business.

"That's not how it was."

"Then, how was it?" Jamie demanded before continuing without giving his father a chance to respond. "Because if it was _that_… then it's almost a relief," he confessed and finally opened up a part of himself that always had been hidden. "Maybe that's why I'm not angry anymore even though I should hate him, right? It's like knowing you're sick, but a bunch of doctors tells you you're fine for years until the last one actually listens to how you're feeling and finds what's been wrong all along. It doesn't even matter at that point if he says you have less than six months to live or that your father's some psychopath and not the man you thought he was because all that you care about is that someone _finally _knows you're not crazy for having those thoughts. All those years of feeling out of place… like I wasn't living up to my potential or marching to the same beat of a drummer as everyone else. I was right, wasn't I? It wasn't about being a cop at all but being a Reagan."

"That's not true."

"There's no part of you that thought I wasn't up to the family standard?"

"You do have enormous talent. If anything, I always thought it was above what the rest of us… what _I _had to offer," the familiar words echoed back as his father corrected himself, determined to make the effort not to pigeonhole any of his children based on his feelings again.

"Talent that you thought I was wasting."

"Not wasting, no. But maybe not maximizing, and I didn't know why," Frank admitted. "We are a driven and ambitious clan, and like it or not no matter what some blood test says, you are one of us. Valedictorian in high school, number one at Harvard Law and now on the sergeant's exam proves that."

"Does it?" his son returned, and Frank realized Jamie was still very much questioning both his place in the family and the NYPD as he had been doing for some time. "Or does it just mean I'm good at taking exams because I inherited a freakish photographic memory from someone else that made them easier for me than anyone else? None of which makes for a great boss or a great cop though, does it? You know being on patrol is all about instincts… when to go in or hold your guys back. I could get past it before by telling myself that I was a damn good cop out there on the street… that I had all those things because they were in my blood, and no matter what anyone else thought, I was really just like you, Pop, Joe and Danny. Now that's not true, and I can't fall back on it... so what if I start questioning myself like I'm doing right now? It's not just me anymore; I have Ed and a whole platoon to worry about. Maybe Danny was right all this time when he said I overthink things."

"If you felt that way, why did you take the test?" Frank asked as this conversation had definitely cut to the quick of all the issues involved.

"I don't know, maybe because I felt obligated… the whole 'Of whom much is given, much is expected' line you laid on me that last time?" Jamie added and put some of the guilt directly at his father's feet. "Maybe because you talked to Eddie and she worked on me, or I felt like it was finally time to switch things up between us. I don't think I would have ever sat for that exam if it wasn't for her."

"So, what, you'd just give back the stripes? Because that would be a mistake. Jamie, you do have a gift for this work, and maybe it doesn't come directly from me and Pop that way, but does it really matter? I'd like to think I did more during your life than write a few checks for an Ivy League school," Frank insisted while borrowing Henry's words as he tried to help his son come to terms with more than just a now-muddied birthright. "And all this self-doubt… it's obvious that came before the Milner situation was brought to light, didn't it? You've been dealing with this for years. I know that we've all had a hand in it, but you've been questioning yourself more than ever since you took that promotion. Why?"

"I accept the risk to me. I signed up with eyes wide open. But I don't think I'm cut out for command."

"The department can't function without command."

"I get that. Danny never became a boss, and he's a hell of a cop."

"You're not Danny, and by extension, he's not you," his father insisted. "You can do whatever you want with this job. You could be PC if you want."

"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I was a damn good cop on the street, at least I thought I was before all this. Maybe I should've just stayed there or gone into law like you and Mom wanted."

"So, that's where we've gotten this wrong then," Frank sat back with a frown as the light clicked on and he finally saw things for what they were. "You're not afraid of failure or not living up to the Reagan standards. You're afraid of success and trying to talk your way out of it… maybe the last thing you want is to be just like me."

"Dad, that's not what I meant…" Jamie paused as he started to consider that statement given the enormous amount of admiration and respect he'd always had for the man before him. "Or is it?" he wavered and let that possibility set in like a fog light shining through the darkness—all this time, had he really been using all this as an excuse to hold himself back? "Eddie says I'm trying to find a way to blame myself for all this… maybe she's right, but I don't know why."

"I think she's on to something," Frank concluded, grateful to hear that he had an ally in his future daughter-in-law on this tack. "And it's not blame, really, but more like a reason to justify how you're feeling. I think you've seen and heard enough over the years between Pop and me at the table to be put off on being the next in line to hold the Reagan PC crown, but you know like anything else you've ever done…once you're challenged, you can't help but push yourself to the top. It's what you did in high school, at Harvard and now you're afraid that by breaking the barrier and becoming part of command that one day you'll end up with an office on the fourteenth floor at 1PP too. It's okay not to want that, Jamie," he assured. "Danny doesn't; he as much as admitted that to me the other day, and of all people, I can truly understand why you don't. Like I told you before, there are days when I would trade places with a beat cop in a heartbeat, but like it or not you're already following that path," he continued to point out, growing surer that they were on the right track now.

"I am?"

"Can you name me another rookie sergeant with the stones to walk into a house with the reputation of the 2-9 who could manage to turn it around in a few months? You still have a long way to go to right the ship, but you've earned the respect of the good and decent officers that felt outnumbered before, and that's more than half the battle. I know you know that and why you were so angry when your brother stepped in on your hostage scene in front of them. You want to lead them, to do well as their boss and fix that situation because that's how you're built. Do you think that's any different than what Danny does when he steps to the front and takes charge during a call though? He's not afraid to take responsibility either. The two of you might go at things from the opposite angle, but you're more alike than not," he noted with pride evident for both.

"The stones," Jamie echoed at the comparison as he thought back to that unfortunate day. "That's exactly what the HNT leader said about Danny after the hostage call," he explained. "He said, 'how about the stones on him?' to me after it was over."

"Huh," Frank chuckled. "That's what I thought too after hearing about the complaint you hung on a certain veteran detective."

"That was a mistake," Jamie admitted openly to his father. "I didn't think so at the time, but now I can see I shouldn't have let it get personal."

"Well, learning from that is part of it too," Frank affirmed as he thought back to a few of his own recent personal failings. "That doesn't mean you're not cut out to be in command though. Remember what I told you after the shock and awe incident at the Beame Complex a few months ago… that you're gonna find having mixed feelings is a common occurrence now that you're a boss?"

"Yeah. You said I won't always know what to do but waiting to make the perfect decision means you'll never make any decision. I get that now, more than ever," Jamie determined. "Because that's the thing I'm the worst at."

"You're not though. You've made thousands of good decisions on the job, but the few that turned out bad are what you focus on because you're not used to failing at anything; you always want things to turn out perfect. That's why academia and law were easy for you… boring, really, and after all this, I think I finally see why that is. Now that you're willing to take some risks, the hard part is finding a way to live with yourself when… not if… you made the wrong one because we all do," Frank warned.

"Even you?" Jamie wondered, feeling increasingly more at ease while their talk went on, just as he always had before in this familiar situation when coming to his father for advice. "Name the last time the PC made a bad call."

"Rachel Witten," Frank nodded and sighed as he sat back, determined now to fix something else that had been bothering him of late.

"The racial profiling officer from six months ago?" his son questioned, recalling the earlier incident which had made headlines across the city. "That wasn't on you… she left you no choice but to fire her after stopping a man for walking while Hispanic."

"That's what the roar of the crowd said, but no, she was let go because I got a case of the zeitgeist, just like you're feeling right now," Frank admitted to bending to the prevailing climate of the time. "I gave into the static, and that was wrong. She was a good cop who believed she was making a good stop, even if in hindsight it was a borderline call. Twenty years ago, it would have been dealt with by a few words from her boss, or at most a suspension. Today someone always needs to be raked across the coals publicly for every mistake. I didn't back her the same way I did for Eddie when she was a rookie and look at the officer she is today. It would be a shame to lose someone like that because I didn't stand up for her… just like I didn't stand up for you when your Mom made some decisions that weren't hers to make. I knew that was wrong, but I went along with it because it was easier to do at the time, not because I didn't think you were up for the job just like Officer Witten."

"So, what are you going to do about it now?" Jamie puzzled, correctly sensing there was more to come and that his own self-doubting state was being spotlighted.

"I'm going to go see her and try to fix it… Maybe it'll take some time, but I hope that she comes back gives me a second chance," Frank added with heavy weight on that last comment as he sat back, ready to test the waters and see if the same sentiment would carry over to their own situation.

"I'm sure she will," his son nodded with that slight sideways grin and a light in his hazel eyes that said he would do the same. "You're a tough guy to say no to."

"Well, I might need a little help, anyway. It's going to be hard for her to get her confidence back after something like that, so it would take just the right situation with someone I trust. I wouldn't want her out on the street unless I knew she was ready, so if you know a guy…"

"I think I do," Jamie accepted the challenge, knowing all along his father was drawing parallels and telling him in a not-so-subtle way that he would be keeping a protective eye on his own mental and physical recovery—not because of any doubts held over his abilities, but because that's what a parent did for his own. Suddenly everything was the same between them again, and any distance that William Milner had managed to put in their relationship closed as that father-son bond they had always shared tightened once more.

"I love you, Dad. I can't guarantee some of this won't come up again because it still does hurt, but I'm gonna try to let it go."

"I love you too, son. I do. Always did, always will," Frank reinforced to leave no doubt as the edges of his mustache crept up for the first time in nearly two weeks, and his eyes twinkled. "And I will try on my end to do the same but promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Whenever someone brings up Harvard, or how much you're like your old man… give me that," he begged. "Pride may goeth before a fall, but I think there are a few times in a man's life when that can be forgiven. I'm proud of you, Jamie, and if I had any hand in the way you turned out, I'm not ashamed to take a little credit."

"That depends. Am I still invited over to watch a game on the couch once in a while?"

"There's one on tonight," Frank eagerly offered as he wanted nothing more than to move forward is that familiar way. "Knicks versus the Sixers; probably don't have a prayer the way things are going this year."

"That's okay, maybe we'll get a lesson in character," Jamie laughed with relief at that invitation knowing that while things would never be quite the same, they weren't all that different either, and eventually the sting from the week's life-altering revelations would fade even if it never wholly disappeared.

"Think Eddie will let me have a beer?" he smirked.

"Not a chance in hell, son. Better get used to that ginger ale for now."

* * *

_Well, I was going to end things there, but it felt like a few more things needed to be wrapped up, and what better way to do it than to finally have a civil Sunday dinner discussion to bring the whole family back together again. So, one more chapter to go in this one and then I'm tossing around a short story in my head centered around our lovebird's return from the honeymoon and some PTSD that maybe Eddie hasn't dealt with yet._


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

_Bless us, Oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen._

For once, everyone at the Reagan table was eager to recite the Sunday dinner prayer in unison, without any prompts for one of them to be singled out to lead it.

"Finally, and might I add it's about time everyone was here and ready to eat when they were supposed to be," Henry sighed in relief as he placed the napkin on his lap and looked around the table with pride and satisfaction at the family who were gathered together. It was the first meal in several weeks where they could indulge in an ample feast without any angry undertones or murderous intruders present. "And today's a special day, so pass the potatoes, Daniel, and don't give me that bowl with the low-calorie, imitation half-and-half nonsense your sister tries to trick me with."

"You got it, Pop," his oldest grandson complied with a smirk and passing glance across the table towards his siblings. "Although for some reason I can't put my finger on, it seems like we're having all the kid's favorites again."

"Some detective," Jamie muttered under his breath as he reached for the salad and prepared himself for the inevitable topic of conversation to come.

"Don't worry," Erin assured as she buttered her roll, having gone out of her way to include all her younger brother's much-loved recipes for mac-and-cheese, pot roast, and fried chicken among the numerous other delectable offerings covering the table. "Dad said Jamie was finally getting his appetite back, so I went full-on fat today… there's a heart attack waiting on every plate."

"Now wait a minute, this is all for the guy who starts every morning off with a Kale smoothie?" Eddie shook her head and suppressed a gag reflex at the thought of the unattractive green veggie concoction that often greeted her from across the breakfast table. "Thank goodness you didn't go with that instead; it's so gross!"

"Hey, I only do that to keep up with your D1-football-player-frat-boy genes since we end up eating out so much, and I don't want to lose my girlish figure before the wedding," her fiancé defended with a smirk given Eddie's love for good food and seemingly extreme metabolism. "Besides, everyone deserves a cheat meal once in a while, and after nothing but IVs and hospital food the past couple of weeks, I think I've earned a few," Jamie admitted as one glance at his slighter-than-normal frame confirmed some unintentional weight loss. "The rest of you just have to suck it up."

"Gladly," Sean eagerly chimed in as he reached for the scrumptious-looking macaroni-and-cheese baked dish first. "And for the record, this is my favorite too, Aunt Erin, so you can make it for me anytime."

"Oh, no," she dissented. "If you like it, you've gotta learn how to cook it yourself. No requests unless it's your birthday, and no freebies without helping in the kitchen."

"But Uncle Jamie and Eddie didn't help make any of this, and it's not his birthday, is it?" Sean aptly noted in disappointment, having had more than his fair share of cooking disasters at home as of late ever since Jack left for college and the boys had been tasked to fill some of the domestic duties after their mother's death.

"Nope, but Uncle Jamie and Eddie get a pass this week… or maybe for a few more," Erin smiled with a sideways look at her recovering younger brother and his currently likewise disabled fiancée. "Don't worry; they'll make up for it. I'll have them on dish duty for a month too when they're better so I can sit back, put my feet up and drink a mimosa while they fan me."

"Gee, thanks sis, can't wait," Jamie resigned with a sigh as, despite recent events, Erin and Danny had shown no mercy to him during their interactions over the past week. The two older siblings were treating him in the exact same manner as promised—something he sincerely appreciated as this new normal since the Milner reveal felt much like the old and it was comforting to see that no one was walking on eggshells around him.

"My pleasure," Erin replied with a grin, and a little glance at her father for approval since he had explicitly requested she reign in those mother-hen tendencies for that exact reason. Given that though, he had little control over her choice of the dinner menu which had been purposefully aimed at her little brother's selection of comfort food, anyway.

"Yeah, and when he's done with all your stuff, it'll be his turn to haul out the ladder, crawl up on the roof and clean the gutters out here again since I had to do that, help Pop box up the donations for the white elephant sale, _and _take them to the church this morning which you promised to do," Danny chimed in as he deliberately twirled a green bean around on his fork before popping it in his mouth after pointing at his brother from across the table. "Fair's fair."

"Wow, you guys are so mean," Sean complained and decided to side against his father and aunt as he also felt a little stung by her earlier rejection. "Wasn't it just last week that you were both all upset when Uncle Jamie was hurt? How come you're picking on him already?"

"Because that's how this family shows we care," his father acknowledged as he failed to let up. "And as far as we're concerned, nothing's changed, so neither will that," he vowed and came a step closer than anyone so far in bringing up the elephant in the room.

"Uncle Danny," Nicky chided from her seat next to him. "He just got out of the hospital two days ago. At least wait until he's feeling better."

"No, he's right… nothing's changed," Jamie added with a surprising sharpness in his voice as he looked up and met his brother's eyes. "Something you said stuck with me all week," he added bluntly with the first edge of his stamped-down emotions evident.

"Oh boy," Henry sighed under his breath as he pushed his plate forward, waiting for the resumption of that feud after having listened to the continued sibling bantering all morning. "Must have spoken too soon; there goes dinner again."

"No, Pop, it's not like that," his youngest grandson assured even as he continued to stare forward, locked on his brother.

"Then, how is it?" Danny demanded uneasily, suddenly unsure himself of where this was going and wondering if perhaps, despite his feigned bravado, he had indeed pushed too hard, too soon again.

"You said I have a choice that others don't have… that they can choose their friends, but most people can't choose their family. Well, I can, at least part of it," Jamie's voice wavered just slightly as he glanced toward Frank and Eddie reached under the table for his hand to help steady it.

"Listen, kid… you know what I meant," Danny defended as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat once more under that focus, misreading his brother's intent. "I wanted you to see that Dad was… well, _Dad, _like always, and Erin and I were just trying to show you that nothing else has to be different."

"I do know that, and it made me realize how blessed I was to have all of you, especially now," Jamie softened as his brother and everyone else at the table let out a breath of relief at this change in tone. "Because even if I could, the only thing I would ever change about my family would be to have a few more of these chairs filled if Mom, Joe, Linda, and Grandma Betty could be here again. So, considering what might have been, I guess that makes me the luckiest guy around even with the way it came to be," he added with a nod and a tight swallow.

"Wow, Danny the great philosopher… who would have guessed?" Erin continued without missing a beat in the regularly-scheduled sibling teasing as she tried to give her brother some cover over what she knew was a very emotional admission.

_"One _of the luckiest, son," Frank corrected as he ignored that and concentrated on his youngest who had just made a such a charged reveal. "Everyone at this table could say the same. I know I can."

"Me too," Eddie reminded. "And I did get to choose. This last year with all of you has been wonderful. Saying yes was the best decision I ever made," she added with a smile and a reassuring peck on Jamie's cheek.

"Hear, hear," Henry agreed as he raised his wine glass in relief at having the conversation turn positive once again. "And we're all looking forward to having you join the family, sweetheart. It just goes to prove what I've always told you… that blood is thicker than water."

"POP! Now, why did you have to go and say that? You have it backward," Nicky sighed in exasperation since everything had been going so well only seconds before, and now in her view, her great-grandfather had just thrown a painful wrench back in the mix. "We all just agreed that Uncle Jamie is every bit the same Reagan he always was even after what happened."

"And you, my dear, need to go back to that fancy college of yours and look up the true meaning behind that saying so you'll see who's wrong," Henry defended with a barb thrown at his great-granddaughter.

"Blood is thicker than water… family first, right?" Nicky continued to insist stubbornly. "That's what we've always been taught."

"The correct quote is '_The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the wom_b,'" Frank inserted as he saw where his father was going with this line of thought and how perfectly it tied into their own situation. "It actually means the blood that is shed in battle bonds soldiers more strongly than simple genetics. Although most people commonly use it to describe the strength of family ties, it doesn't refer to that at all," he added with another pause and weighted glance at his youngest son. "Except in this case. Considering what this family has been through, and all of the battles we've faced whether they've been won or lost, I can't think of anything that could bind us together stronger."

"He's right," Jamie agreed before quipping to lighten the heavy mood, having had his fill of that lately and ready to move on. "Besides, considering all the transfusions I got, I have all of your blood running through my veins now, anyway, especially Dad's… his was the one I got that first night since it was a perfect match; they made sure," he added in appreciation.

"But that wouldn't mess things up if you still wanted to do the DNA thing and find out if you have any other half-brothers and sisters, right?" Sean asked as his curiosity over that point had him wondering what his uncle might decide. "Are you going to do that? 'Cause I'd want to know. What if you're related to someone really cool, like a rockstar or a gazillionaire or something?"

"Or given our ages, maybe an aging boyband member," Erin kidded in jest.

"Who could be cooler than us?" Danny huffed in dissent at that comment and followed up with a frown towards his youngest son as honestly the thought of his only remaining brother seeking out other siblings tickled a jealous thread in his mind. "You're at a table full of cops, Marines and even a few do-gooder bleeding hearts. We're defenders of all that's good over the forces of evil… like superheroes."

"See, I always told your uncle we should get capes with our uniforms," Eddie agreed with her soon-to-be brother-in-law.

"Uh, no, Sean," Jamie trailed off as he had decided against such a thing after much consideration. "I really don't think I want to know. Like I said, even though things aren't exactly the way I always thought they were, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out."

"Well, I did, and I even paid extra to have them put a super-fast two-day rush on it," his fiancée interjected, much to everyone's surprise as all eyes turned to her, thinking she had betrayed his trust. "For mine, I mean," Eddie defended. "C'mon, after all this, can you blame me? We're getting married in a few months, and I didn't want any surprises before I walk down that aisle! This family has the craziest things happen to it, so I checked! There's no Milner's or Reagans or any such thing in my family tree," she assured with a relieved huff. "All Janko's, Kovács and Nagy's… Hungarian and Serbs from over there; no Irish. We're safe."

"So how will that work?" Nicky pried. "I mean some poor, unsuspecting person puts their DNA in the system and finds out they're related to a serial rapist and killer, or worse? I don't think I'd want to know something like that either or have it become public information for anyone else to see. Look what it did to Uncle Jamie," she pointed out. "And didn't Anthony find a whole album of pictures including his, Maureen Saunders' and like a dozen others when they searched Milner's room at the Plaza?" she continued. "What about those people? Are you going to track them down and tell them? What if they don't want to know either?"

"I contacted all of the registries," Erin explained. "Since the news is out there for anyone to hear, and there's no further need to prosecute, the DA thinks we should handle it more discreetly. All his former patients will receive a confidential letter advising them of the situation. Outside of that, anyone who tests directly as a match to Milner through one of the DNA sites will be notified first and asked to contact our office with a case file number before any of that information becomes available. At least that way someone can explain the situation and they can decide to share it or not. It's the best we can do for now since he's dead, and the nurse is going to prison under her plea agreement," she acknowledged in this day and age of changing technologies.

"Then, it's really over?" Nicky asked with another hopeful glance at her uncle, who returned it with an assuring smile. "You're just going to sort of move on?"

"Yeah, Nick, it's really over," Jamie confirmed. "Dad, Pop, Eddie, and I have talked it out over the last few days, and I'm ready to put everything behind me. They made me realize that no matter what's happened, it was a long time ago, and nothing any of us could control. Like Ed keeps saying, I'm exactly the same person I was five minutes before we found out about any of it. I'm a Reagan and an NYPD sergeant; I have people counting on me, and that's exactly the life I would have chosen, anyway. So, we're going to spend the next couple of weeks while I'm off work finalizing everything for the wedding, and then I'll go back and be a house-mouse for a little while until I'm physically ready to hit the street again. It'll take me that long to clear all the backlogged paperwork off my desk, anyway. Other than that, I'm good to go," he added with conviction and a deliberate glance between his brother and father to affirm that intent.

"We'll be house-mice together, you mean, at least until I get this thing off," Eddie corrected with a lighthearted smirk as she raised her glass with her left arm, casted in NYPD blue of course. "If we can make it through that together, marriage will be a breeze," she contended with a toast.

"Here's to becoming a Reagan."

"Hear, hear," came the chorus of happy replies from around the table before Henry offered his own blessing given what he knew would be a contentious time on the job as no one in the Reagan family was known to have patience with an extended time on desk duty.

"And God bless everyone at the 2-9 for the next few weeks with these two on modified, because they're gonna need it," he added with a grin.

###

"Reagan, do you really think we should be doing this?" Detective Maria Baez huffed uneasily as her partner pulled up in front of the 2-9 Precinct building in their flashy silver car, drawing the attention of several passing officers.

"I mean you brother's only been back at work for a few days, and he's still stuck on desk duty… maybe you should take it easy on him. You could have just dropped that envelope in the interdepartmental mail like anyone else and said thanks on Sunday."

"This _is _me taking it easy on him," Danny insisted as he located the last parking space on the seemingly busier-than-normal street next to several other unmarked cars and put the Dodge Charger into park. He popped the door, intending to drop off the final paperwork concerning the dismissal of his command discipline and finally officially put that whole situation to bed. "I'm showing respect by bringing it to him in person," he insisted even though that defense fell on a pair of well-worn, skeptical ears.

"Yeah, well, the last couple of times you've been here haven't exactly come off that way," Maria replied, thinking about two previous visits in particular which had seen one Detective Daniel Reagan fly more than a little off the handle—once when he found out Eddie had helped Sean over an underaged drinking charge without his father's knowledge, and the second, of course, when he had come to confront Jamie about the very matter that had now seemingly been resolved.

"He rescinded it, and took a hit from the Chief of Patrol for doing that even though I said he didn't have to, so why would I be upset?" Danny pushed, determined to see this through, anyway.

"Because you're a Reagan, and so is he, that's why," his partner replied, still in the dark about the personal blow the Milner situation had brought to Jamie but having witnessed numerous interactions between the various family members such as this over the year. "Trust me, this kinda thing never goes well," she warned.

"There's always a first time, Baez," he returned as they made their way into the building lobby, which was crowded with numerous dark-suited detectives that Danny instantly recognized from the Internal Affairs Bureau, as well as small groups of stunned-looking patrol officers gathered around and talking in hushed voices.

"Now, what the hell is going on?" Danny questioned as they pushed past the front desk. "Wonder why the goon squad is here?"

"Maybe they heard you were coming," Maria quipped before they were both shocked by the sight of Officer Maya Thomas being led out of the muster room doorway in handcuffs. "Wait, isn't that Eddie's partner?" she gasped.

"Yeah, it is. Wonder what the hell that's about?" Danny worriedly answered as he looked around for anyone who seemed in the know and could tell them what was going on. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the case might be, the lead IAB Investigator had no problem recognizing him as he entered the hallway and deliberately headed their way.

"Reagan," Lieutenant McDonnell scoffed as he joined them. "It's been what, a couple of months since I had your file on my desk? Miss me? Got something you need to get off your chest?" he goaded. "The door's always open if you've got a confession to make."

"Not here to see you, McDonnell," Danny gruffed as he'd had numerous confrontations with this particular IAB officer over the years and had little use for him. "What's going on?" he demanded with a bit of a nod toward Thomas who was being taken out of the building at that moment in front of scores of her gawking co-workers.

"Nothing to see but a dirty cop," the Lieutenant advised. "Under arrest for grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property for stealing cash from drug dealers after IAB executed a search warrant at her apartment this morning."

"Seriously?" Maria chimed in disbelief. "How'd you prove the cash was from that?"

"Marked bills from a recent crime scene along with a bank deposit slip, indicating her intent to keep it for personal use," McDonnell continued. "Your brother put us on to her after getting a tip, so we set up a sting, and he had her arrested in front of the whole platoon during roll call this morning after taking her weapon for inspection. Made it clear that like her, anyone in this precinct caught violating the law will be held to its highest standard… 'without fail and without exception,'" he quoted Jamie with a deliberate look up and down at Danny before delivering his final point. "Guess now we know who got the bigger set of stones from the Commissioner… that was a move out of the Frank Reagan playbook if I ever saw one. You sure you're related?"

"Wait, so he did it in front of everyone, including Thomas's partner, Officer Janko?" Danny ignored that highly ironic barb and sought to clarify the situation as he could see his brother through the glass window seemingly involved in a rather testy discussion with Eddie in the front of the muster room. "And she didn't know anything about it?" he assumed given that fact.

"No, like I said, he's got good instincts and dogged persistence… stayed on us until we took it seriously and kept everyone else out of the loop… followed the rules to a T; maybe you could learn something from him, Detective," McDonnell dropped sarcastically before dismissing himself with a nod and following the rest of his men out of the building.

"I'm guessing maybe Eddie's not gonna be so on board with this if it went down that way," Baez noted with apprehension as her partner seemed to be of two minds as to whether or not he should step into that fray. "I know I wouldn't be."

"Yeah, um… wow, if I would have done that to Linda, or you, I'd be toast, right?" Danny mused and imagined what the fallout would have been in that instance, hesitating for just a second before determining it was his duty as a brother and future in-law to help smooth such a contentious wrinkle over, especially after seeing Jamie glance over and catch his presence at the doorway.

"Damn, I guess I should stay and see if I can help," he misguidedly believed even though his brother seemed to read his mind and offered an almost imperceptible shake of his head in a futile warning not to interfere.

"Yeah, that's a mistake, and none of your business," Maria also tried to make him reconsider. "I'd let them work it out on their own."

"They're family… or almost, and that makes it my business," Danny asserted.

"Reagan, this is kinda like that hostage call; you're stepping into his house… literally _and _figuratively this time," she made one last-ditch effort to steer him away. "Don't do it; just let your brother handle it on his terms."

"Everything will be fine," he insisted.

"That's easy to say now," Maria shook her head.

"What do you want me to do? Look, I have a chance to do the kid a solid and help end this thing for him. I owe him that for what he did with the Chief."

"Well, I don't have a dog in this fight, so let me know how that works out for you," she determined, and cowardly decided to duck out and leave her partner in the lurch alone before becoming entangled in another Reagan family personal crisis.

"You were investigating this whole time?" Danny could hear Eddie hiss as she still had her back turned, and he became the unfortunate and unwitting third wheel in the conversation as Jamie allowed it to continue since this was no time to interrupt her run and it was apparent his brother was bent on ignoring his warning, anyway.

"IAB was," he was trying to clarify in an equally terse voice. "I followed up with them after we had our conversation, got 'em to take a closer look," he explained since Eddie had been the one to bring the informant's tip to his attention in the first place on his very first day back at work, and it was at her insistence that Internal Affairs was brought in.

"Then why didn't you tell me?" she demanded as all of this had taken place right after her cast had been removed and she had been restored to regular duty.

"'Cause I couldn't tell anyone, Eddie," he tried to explain.

"She was my partner!"

"I couldn't risk you tipping her off, even unintentionally."

"You don't trust me?"

"Of course, I trust you!" he insisted with another warning look in Danny's direction, wishing his brother would stop standing there in the doorway like a damn deer in the headlights and leave before his presence was detected and all this became worse. If there was one thing he and Eddie did well together, it was to have these little flares before finding common ground and talking their way out of any situation—and that did not require outside intervention, at least not in this case.

"Well, then I don't understand why you didn't just say something," his beloved added with a petulant little stomp, still not ready to take a deep breath and see things for what they were—something that would eventually happen of course later that evening when the sting and shock of losing a friend and partner under such an ugly cloud wasn't so sharp, and she had a moment to digest the event with a clear head, some good food and maybe a few beers.

"I have a responsibility to the job, Eddie. We've talked about this. It's a separation of church and state," he tried to remind her of their rather unique circumstances which currently meant keeping their relationship status out of the office.

"I just didn't think that that meant lying to me," she added with that hurt tone and those sad, betrayed blue eyes that just tore his heart out.

"I'm sorry, Eddie. I wish there'd been another way."

"She was having money problems. If I had offered to help her sooner…" the bargaining started, almost as if on cue, and the argument began to break down into more of a discussion as she worked out the problem in her typical Janko style.

"That's on her, Eddie, not you," he assured as the blame began to shift back toward Maya where it rightly belonged.

"If I hadn't pushed you to follow up on that tip…"

"Then there'd still be a dirty cop in your precinct. You did the right thing," Danny finally spotted an opportunity and stepped forward to insert his two cents in what turned out to be yet another unwelcomed effort to bail his brother out of a hostile situation. "And, so did the kid. He did it to protect you, and I know you know that," he offered in an attempt to extend an olive branch between the two of them. "Now shake hands and go back to your corners."

"Is your brother _seriously _butting into our conversation and equating the fact that my partner was just arrested after my fiancé set her up with IAB to some kind of funny, ha-ha imaginary boxing analogy?" Eddie shot back as her eyes flashed back over to Jamie in utter disbelief at the intrusion.

Clearly, Danny had miscalculated with the wrong approach here, and he knew it instantly as this little blonde's fading fireball of ire reignited in his direction.

"Yeah, he kinda did," Jamie confirmed as he deliberately took her side, secretly relieved her attention had been further diverted. Maybe having his brother step in to take the proverbial bullet wasn't a mistake after all, especially if it got him out of the doghouse earlier and back into his own bed tonight with all of the glorious perks that came with that.

"Ah, no… um, I… listen guys… m' sorry, guess not," Danny backed off in a stuttering, nonsensical apology as that headlight-struck look returned—one that only a few select family members like Linda, his mother, Erin, and now apparently one fierce Edit Marie Janko could trigger in him despite the hard-headed bravado he displayed to the rest of the world. Perhaps that could be explained by the respect garnered by a certain beloved grandmother whose heavy hand, yet golden heart had been so influential in his younger years.

"He _guesses _not," Eddie ruffled with a follow-up _humph_ just to restate her point before turning back to Jamie. "Sullivan's tonight?"

"Seven o'clock… I'll have the beers and an order of your favorite two-for-one Old Bay wings waiting," he confirmed before she turned with an emphatic little flip of her bunned-up ponytail directed towards her future brother-in-law before she took her leave and exited the muster room while Danny's jaw dropped.

"Wait, so that's it? You give up her partner to IAB in front of the whole squad, she blows off all that steam, and then the two of you meet for drinks to make up? You mean I walked into that for no reason?"

"Yep," Jamie confirmed as he gathered up his paperwork from the podium as if this had been just another day. "I tried to warn you off; everything was fine."

"That's easy to say now!"

"What did you want me to do?"

"Look, I heard about what happened from McDonnell and thought I had a chance to end this before it became a thing between the two of you. So, I tried to end it," Danny defended his good intentions while continuing to try to digest what he had just witnessed in an odd parallel to the hostage situation that had started this whole debacle.

"You could've checked with me first," Jamie chided with a little self-satisfied smirk at his brother's expense as they began to make their way towards his office, clearly and carefully drawing his words from an earlier argument between the two that had ended very differently.

"There wasn't time!"

"That's protocol," his younger brother flatly noted as he sat down in his office chair and tipped it back with his trademark sideways smile on his face. "I told you never to go in again unless I gave the order, right?"

"Protocol, fine," Danny harrumphed as he finally realized where their conversation had been drawn and that he was being poked fun at. "You could have saved me, bro," he complained and continued to worry after receiving a follow-up glare from a certain blonde through the widow as Eddie spotted them from across the hall where she was reluctantly fielding questions from other officers regarding Maya's arrest. "I'd rather take down an armed, 300-pound strung-out EDP any day than step on the wrong side of her like that again. So, is she really pissed?"

"Yeah, probably a little," Jamie confirmed. "But she'll get over it soon, or you could stop by Sullivan's after work and buy a round if you want to clear it up right away," he offered, knowing that his brother could probably use a little of that TLC too just to put everything to bed after the trials of the previous month or so.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that," Danny conceded after a little smile and wave in Eddie's direction confirmed Jamie's observation and was met with a renewed frown and another now-familiar hair flip. "You know, this thing the two of you have," he observed. "There probably isn't another couple in the whole department that could make something like that work… you being the boss, her staying in the same precinct, I mean," he clarified before adding. "I know we've all had our reservations about that, but somehow I think you can… no, forget that… I _know _you will because you can do anything you put your mind to; always have… you've got the stones for it, just like the old man."

"Thanks, Danny… it really means a lot to hear you say that," Jamie acknowledged as he could tell from his older sibling's demeanor that the sentiment was genuine and not just meant to buoy a fragile ego. While coming back to work had brought with it a mix of emotions, being forced to deal with those underlying insecurities had actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and he had been able to move forward in this post-Milner age with a new sense of purpose and the knowledge his decisions to take the sergeant's test and express his true feelings toward Eddie had ultimately been the right ones in the end with all sense of self-doubt about being a real Reagan removed.

"You're welcome, kid," his older brother replied and prepared to take his leave. "I'll always try to look out for you, little brother, even if it means I mess things up sometimes. Seven at Sullivan's," he confirmed his intent to take up that earlier invitation.

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll see you there."

* * *

_So, that's a wrap on this one as the Reagan family is all glued together again and our favorite brothers are back to their regularly-scheduled relationship. Along with a few series pieces already in the "_werks_", I have an idea for a short piece dealing with an angsty return to work for Eddie and Jamie after the honeymoon as she has some unresolved PTSD to work out. Hope to have that ready before the BB 10:1 premiere, but it's been a busy summer already, so no promises although I'll try my best. Other than that, Happy belated Fourth of July to everyone, enjoy the next few months on hiatus and thanks for the continued support and reviews!_


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